No doubt it is true of all communities, but one can not help but be a bit nostalgic for the way that McCook would look now, had it not been for the devastating fires that have rocked our town over the last 125 years.

One of the very early fires, in 1884, destroyed La-Tourette's Hardware Store (later Jenning's & Hoyt's Hardware). Mr. LaTourette was one of McCook's earliest business men. The fire not only destroyed the hardware store, but the restaurant that was next door and did much damage to the Post Office and Hayden's Dry Goods. Ironically, Mr. LaTourette had been one of the leaders of a movement for better fire protection, and had gotten a Volunteer Fire Brigade started in 1883, but it was not until 1886 that the 3-inch water pipes were laid and the first fire hydrants appeared on McCook streets.

In 1907 The Bixler Opera House, McCook's "Pride and Joy", was reduced to a smoldering heap of ruins. The structure had been completed just the year before, and was hailed as "one of the best equipped and largest opera houses in the state". The destruction was so sudden that the Bixlers, who lived in the west end of the building, were unable to save any of their possessions, but luckily, they escaped unharmed.

In the early days Livery Stable fires were common and McCook certainly had its share of residential fires, but it was the large commercial building fires that captured the headlines in the newspapers. The Commercial Hotel (at Main and C St.), one of McCook's early landmarks burned to the ground in 1919. "Good Riddance", said some of the observers of the fire. By 1919 The Commercial's best days were long past.

In 1948 quick efficient work by the McCook Fire Department minimized what threatened to become a major conflagration. Early morning on December 6th a boiler apparently exploded in the basement of the Temple Theater causing a fire, which quickly burned through the flooring of the theater section, damaging most of the seats in the auditorium. Smoke filled the entire building and fire fighters had to don smoke masks to enter the building. At one point the fire reached the third floor, burning through a "fire wall". Ray Search, the theater manager said that in just a few more minutes the fire would have reached the projection booth where much film was stored. In those days the film was "acetate based" and highly explosive. A film explosion could well have blown through the roof of the building, creating a draft that would have destroyed the Temple building and all the buildings around it. Fortunately, the firemen curtailed the spread of the fire and held the damage to a minimum.

Never-the-less, that fire signaled the end of the Temple Building as a Theater -- one of Nebraska's finest Vaudeville Theaters

1964 was a particularly bad year for fires in McCook. In September of that year Equity Co-op Manager, Bob Bowker witnessed a bolt of lightning strike the Equity Mill, on A Street. Immediately the building began to burn. 25 McCook firefighters were joined by fire units from Culbertson and Indianola who fought a losing battle with the fire. Fire hydrants on Norris Avenue and East 1st St. were opened and water was allowed to fill the drainage ditch along A St. From 6:30 p.m. till 1 a.m. the next morning a Halliburton Oil Rig pumper truck pumped water out of the ditch onto the fire -- 500 gallons per minute at 900 pounds per square inch pressure -- until the fire was contained.

A detail that most people did not realize at the time, was that the fertilizer building, just a few feet away from the burning mill tower was filled with dry nitrogen fertilizer. Elevator employees and volunteers worked feverously to empty that building. Had the flames reached the very volatile fertilizer, there would have been a tremendous explosion. The next morning lawns within a five block area of the Equity Mill (ours included) were covered with a fine gray ash, a grisly souvenir of that tragic fire.

In February 1964, a fire raged through four connected buildings on Norris Avenue, wiping out four separate businesses -- The Economy Shoe Store, The Kansas-Nebraska Gas Co., The A & M Pharmacy, and Sailor's Furniture Store. The blaze apparently started in the basement of the shoe store and quickly spread through the other businesses. The 18-member McCook fire force, doubled by help from the Indianola and Culbertson fire departments, trained eight hoses from four fire trucks on the fire for over 10 hours, and were credited with keeping the fire from destroying the entire block.

The Union Block, as it was known to Old Timers, dated back to the 1890s -- to the time when Main Street and B Street were paved with only dirt -- dusty or muddy, depending upon the time of the year, and the sidewalks were made of boards. It was a fine example of the "Ginger Bread" buildings, with their fancy adornments, which were common to that time, but now long gone.

It was a bad night for a fire that February night. The blaze shot high into the sky, and from our home, three blocks away it seemed as if the entire downtown area was ablaze. The temperature was well below freezing and icicles grew on the firemen's hats and beards. Fire Chief, Fred Walker was struck in the back of the head with a stream of water and had to be taken to St. Catherine's Hospital, as was fireman, Dale Bridgmon, who was overcome with smoke inhalation.

Fortunately, there was no loss of life -- but it was close. Two McCook youths, Rich Myers and Roger Olson, were "dragging Main" when they noticed flames in an upstairs window. They emerged as heroes when they raced through the building and roused Dr. Tom Murphy and Floyd Schnegelberger, who occupied apartments above the shoe store. The two men were safe, but had no time to save their possessions.

As the firemen fought the blaze through the night there were a surprisingly large number of spectators. At the bakery, across the street, we brewed many containers of coffee, as did other restaurants, and opened our doors for those who needed "just a few minutes to warm up."

Those firemen, almost all volunteers, were serious about their work, brave, skillful, and compassionate toward those business owners who were watching (in some cases) their life's work go up in smoke.

In the end the fire was confined to those four business that made up the Union Block, but the structure was so thoroughly damaged that it had to be torn down to the first floor -- bringing to an end an architectural era of a previous century.

Looking back on our 50 years in McCook there have been many other fire related changes to McCook's downtown, (destroyed or badly damaged by fire). Some include:

1962. M&E Café. 1964: VFW Club.

1966: Sunglow Dairy and Swan's Furniture Warehouse, McCook Packing Co.

1967. Ed's Grill.

1968. Olympia and Bronco Club.

1971. McCook Equity lumber yard.

January 1976: Anton's Grocery, Modern Appliance Sheet Metal, and Farm & Home Store.

1981. McCook National Bank.

In many cases those businesses closed forever, and in all cases the businesses were greatly changed, causing major changes in our downtown area. But since 1982 there have been few such fires. In another column it will be interesting to examine a few of the changes in firefighting over the past years.

Source: McCook Gazette, Centennial Edition, Omaha World Herald, 2/28/1964