April 15, 1928 Fire on Main Street, Again

Yes, here we go again, another fire on Main Street. This time, though, the outcome is different from the earlier fires.

The April 20, 1928 Interlaken Review reported “Interlaken Has Two Fires in One Day.”

The first happened at 12:55 a.m. on the Sunday morning of April 15, 1928, Lynn Stewart woke up from a coughing spell. What he found when he woke up was paper burning in the room. The chimney had overheated and set fire to some papers. He tried to smother the fire, realized he couldn’t and turned in the alarm. As noted, “Not much damage was done.” 

Later that morning a second fire was discovered in the building at the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Blauvelt, who lived above the Review offices, noticed smoke coming from the building, at which point it “had gained considerable headway.”

The Freudenheims, who lived on the second floor, had left some time before to go to Rochester. It appeared that the fire started in the living quarters and traveled down into the store.

“As soon as the men reached the scene, Chief Haskins realized that outside help was necessary to save the business section…and help was asked from Trumansburg, Ovid, Willard and Ithaca, all responding very quickly and all doing gallant service.”

A firemen’s nightmare, to be on scene and find not one length of hose broken, but in this case, “five lengths of hose bursting before a good stream could be put on the fire. By this time the Freudenheim store was a roaring furnace.”

Several other buildings also sustained damages from the fire, or in some cases, water damages. But unlike earlier fires, only one building was damaged to the point it had to be torn down.

Main Street at Railroad Ave, pre-1928
Interlaken Historical Society photo #34

The building on the right, Millinery, was occupied by Frueidenheims in 1928 when it burned. The brick building, Peterson's groceries, would become the fire house.

Two interesting items noted in this fire were the Boy Scouts, and the use of soda and acid.

The Boy Scouts had been “drilled by Chief Haskins in fire work. Each boy came to the fire with a coil of rope. They roped off streets and acted as traffic officers…and helped fill the chemical engine (with water).”

The Lodi Fire Department sent over a supply of soda and acid, for the chemical engine, and it arrived just in time. 

 Chemical fire engines or extinguishers powered by a combination of acid and soda were first used in the 1860s. Bicarbonate of soda was added to the water in the tank and combined with sulphuric acid, which produced a chemical reaction that forced water from the tank into the hose. Chemical engines were used by firehouses until the 1930s, when water tanks with boosters became more common and expensive chemicals were no longer needed. [https://www.kovels.com/collectors-concerns/chemical-fire-engine.html]

The entire Interlaken Review article can be read here.

Dewitt’s Diary April 15, 1928

Light snow flurries. W. E. Peterson and Maxon’s old store were badly damaged by fire today. All the fire engines in the county were there. Ithaca, Trumansburg, Ovid, and Willard. It nearly got beyond control.

We went to the Burg.