Lansing, MI State Office Building Fire, Feb 1951

Michigan Fire Damage Set At $4 Million

LANSING, Mich., Feb. 9. (AP) - Michigan state government came to a virtual standstill Friday as a $4,000,000 fire in the upper floors of the state office building burned itself out.

Fourteen major departments in the buiding were unable to function as the fire chewed the eight-story structure.

Departments in the state capitol and outlying buildings were nearly paralyzed by the lack of telephone service. The central switchboards of the state system were in the middle of the damaged section.

Two investigations were underway.

Gov. G. Menen Williams ordered the state police, the state building division and other agencies to seek the cause of the blaze.

The state House of Representatives appointed a five - member investigating committee which set its first hearing for Tuesday.

Firemen from five cities were still pouring six thousand gallons of water a minute into the big granite building, 27 hours after the blaze broke out on the seventh floor.

Fourteen men including Lansing Fire Chief hugh Fisher and State Police Captain Lawrence Meehan were overcome.

Confined to the upper two floors, the fire alternately smoulodered and burst into flame, until after noon, when State Fire Marshal Arnold Renner said it "appeared" to have been brought under control.

Making the $4,000,000 damage estimate, he said, it was "only a guess" so far.

The entire building was damaged by cascading water from four aerial ladders and hoses tied to two impressed construction cranes.

Temporary quarters for the 10 agencies occupying the top four floors were being arranged.

The Abilene Reporter News, Abilene, TX 10 Feb 195
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!