Nebraska City voluunteer firemen who fought the blaze in the basement of Hotel Grand Sunday night thought they had put out the fire, only to have it flame up again.
One fireman called to City Utilities crews asking whether the gas was off. He was assured once again it was off, and still the flame was persistent.
Firemen speculated that "something in the kitchen ceiling" contributed to the draft that fed the flames, making it virtually impossible to smother the blaze.
There was also fear that firemen would be trapped in the basement. They thought they were making progress, but when it was realized that the flame had fed itself upwards they were called from the smoky space.
It was a heartbreaker for firemen to give up. They had done so well, and thought they had it.
On the other side, had they not fought as hard as they did in those early moments, the final destruction could have been much worse, particularly for properties north of the hotel buildings.
Fire Chief Otto Berthold relieved his assistant chief, Bill Berger, when be arrived from a Sunday trip to Beatrice. Meanwhile, Berger did an admirable job. He directed the often complicated system of hooking up to hydrants and gave the order that Police Chief Clarence Iversen relayed by two-way radio to call out all companies of volunteers and all equipment.
What's next for firemen?
They'd like to say thank-you to the many firemen from other communities who raced to Nebraska City to help. And if they do it like they did after the Wessel's fire of six years ago, there'll be a hot time in the town that night and it won't be flames.
That summer evening when the Wessel's fire broke out, C. F. "Slim" Mason radioed me via citizen's band radio and I grabbed my trusty 4x5 Speed Graphic and headed down Tenth Street.
Sunday night we got to the fire even earlier than we did the Wessel's fire. As we drove home from Omaha with Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sackles, we remarked how clear it was and how bright the moon lighted the night.
So, when we came in on North Eleventh Street, we were aware that what could have been mistaken for fog, was surely smoke. We turned east on First Avenue, and as we stopped on the north side of the telephone building, the fire truck pulled around the corner.
We were dressed for a Sunday outing which included pancakes at the Village Inn, so about all you could say for this newsman was that he was probably well-dressed for the job that followed.
There was a quick race to the Methodist church to call Larry Parker to bring his camera. (Oh, what a time — Larry was in the bathtub).
In the events that followed for the news people, there several trips to the News-Press for more cameras and film and some telephone calls, one of which was cut off when the operator said the phone building was being evacuated.
We were concerned that our UPI service would also be lost but George Kane assured us that the crew was well aware of the trouble. It turned out that the phone boys were so efficient that the teletype came on automatically like it was scheduled at 11:30 p.m., without any delay.
There were more trips back to the News-Press where a total of six rolls of film (that's 72 pictures) plus four 4x5 film holders (that's eight more pictures) were developed in time variations of eight and 10 minutes in HC110 developer. Normal development is three and three-quarter minutes, but because of the heavy smoke and lack of lighting, we tried to compensate by "souping up" the development.
It was after midnight when the last of the film was developed.
And then back to the fire. We talked with the Salvation Army representatives, police, firemen and Mayor A.O. Gigstad, walked the icy streets for a time and headed back to the News-Press to double check to make sure we didn't forget and leave the water running in the darkroom sink.
And then home.
By then it was 2 a.m., and Millie's cold roast in the refrigerator looked mighty good.
It was a restless night and at 6 a.m., we were up and not very ready to roar. There was anotherntelephone call while my bacon and eggs got cold and then off to the police station to check any other night happenings and then to the News-Press.
Arthur Sweet, the publisher, took over the desk and UPI job and the night work of Len Hoskins, Larry and Dick Barton was next. The job was to coordinate the pictures and stories into one interesting package for our readers.
Which pictures to choose was another task. Additional pictures had to be taken Monday morning to supplement the night shots and they were a "must" for the day's paper. The others we could sort through and pick out the best for the space available.
Len had laid out an eight page paper, but that was quickly changed to 10 pages to permit space for the 13 pictures which appeared in Monday's paper.
About 20 prints, two, three and four column, were made in the darkroom Monday morning. Max Moyer, our job department head, took over the darkroom to make the halftones for printing.
Among the pictures we chose were two very good shots by Steve Boerner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Boerner. Steve used good judgment in his subject material and lighting and we liked the results.
It's a lot of work to put a big story together, but enjoy doing it. That's our job. We just hope you enjoyed reading it.
Word gets around pretty fast:
Bryan Mabie, a student at Augustana college at Sioux Falls, S.D., and Bob Toler, of Lakewood, Colo., had heard about the fire and called.