Tuesday , February 16th started off as any other day around the Miles home does, and at that time who would have thought that it would be one of the longest days of my life, in fact it was 64 hours later before the head touched the pillow.

The day was routine until about 4:08 p.m. Tuesday afternoon , I was at Johnson drug store trying to sell some advertising when the fire whistle blew. I took off on the dead run towards the Independent to reach my car, rushed to the Fire House heard that the call was to St. Mary's School. Not giving it much thought at the time, thought it was just another routine call, small trash fire or something of something of the nature. But as we have always done we moved with speed. I drove the first truck to the school and upon arriving Dad, Chief Miles was waiting and told me to pull the truck around behind the school as they had fire in the old dressing room.

I pulled the truck around behind the school put it into pump gear and started the pump up, firemen grabbed the two booster lines and moved into the area. I stayed with the truck until pressure was reached and the pump was operating , then moved to the fire to see what we had. After getting into the smoke filled area it looked like the fire could amount to more than just a small one so took off to find the Chief and see if we should start laying big lines. By the time I got around the school the 750 LaFrance was in front and Hap was directing the men to start laying a large line. We pulled the two 1 and a half lines off the LaFrance and started towards the back of the school where the fire was, after getting the lines into operating the fire was put out in the area of the old dressing room and equipment room which the grade school has been using.

Control Possible?

It looked like the fire was under control in that area and started through the hall checking, the area was heavily smoked up but couldn't find any sign of heat or fire. It looked like that the fire was out here in that area.

At about that time word came around from the front that the fire had broke through the floor and the upper stories was building up with heavy smoke and heat. We moved into the front of the of the area and startled up the main front entrance with a line and about that time fire belched out of the doors sending the firemen back. In the meantime Chief Miles had called for help from the County Mutual Aid and towns were on their way from Stuart, Atkinson, Page and Chambers. The other O'Neill truck was hooked up to the fire hydrant by the Public School and more large 2 and a half lines were strung and the fighting began all over all over again. Where it looked like the fire was under control, now had the entire three stories in flames and burning out of control.

From here on in it was was smoke, get wet and try to bring the fire under control. The time stretched on with dinner going by and in the mean time, other department trucks arrived and the front of the school began to look like a bunch of large snakes had moved in for the evening. Firemen were all over with help from local men and boys used on the lines.

A stand was made to try and stop the fire from moving from the old wing to the new, several of the firemen and myself were on the first floor with a line pouring water into what was the music section. We stayed there as long as we could with the smoke becoming more and more dense rolling in black waves from the upper stories, at last it was so thick that we were down on our knees trying to breathe, but finally we had to back out of the building and fight form the outside.

Escape Tower Crash

Later on men from Atkinson were manning a line in the front entrance of the old wing and they just moved back in time as the bell tower and part of the wall caved in just missing them.

At about 8:00 p.m., word came down from the pumpers that they were losing pressure and we were running short of water. The trucks had to slow down on pumping and it was then decided to have a well at the north baseball field hooked into the water system to provide water. After this was done the water pressure came back and full pumping was resumed.

It was thought after the fire that over 1 million gallons of water was pumped during the evening of the fire.

Later in the evening, Consumers Sky Worker which was at Creighton arrived and a line was attached to it and with it being able to reach over 40 feet up in the air, this help slowed the fire as we were then able to pour water down on top of the fire.

End of Fight Seen

About midnight the fire was being brought under control with the firemen able to get into the west wing and stop the fire from coming down from the top floor. Firemen and men along with the help from school children were able to move out most of the desks out of the first and basement floor.

At about 2:00 p.m., the fire was brought to a halt and firemen began the task of picking up lines and moving back to their respectable towns.

During the course of the evening, the ladies of the community were very welcome as they were lifesavers with coffee, sandwiches, and rolls.

About 2:30 in the morning, members of the O'Neill department left with about six members staying until morning and then others came back to take over the lonely watch.

The Fire Department was called back to the school at least 10 to 15 times during the week following the fire, with the work of such a fire nor over even a week.