Lansing, MI Engineering Fire At Michigan Agricultural College, Mar 1916

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT M.A.C. SUNDAY MORN.

ENGINEERING BUILDING BURNS WITH SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT AND CLASS RECORDS LOST.

LOSS ESTIMATED AT NEARLY QUARTER OF MILLION; OTHER BUILDINGS SAVED ONLY BY ABSENCE OF WIND.

Fire destroyed the engineering building and shops of the Michigan Agricultural college yesterday morning with a loss of $240,000.
Student volunteers and Lansing firemen saved Wells hall, the men's dormitory, and other college buildings after a hard fight.
The loss on the building and the equipment for civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, etc., is estimated at $240,000.
Laboratory equipment worth thousands of dollars went up in smoke while the students and instructors were powerless to act because of the intense heat and danger from falling masonry.
Much scientific data, the result of research by professors and students, was burned.
The fire is believed to have started in the cement laboratory in the basement of the engineering building, where there were gas ovens for heating bricks. The flames had gained such headway when they were discovered shortly after five o'clock that little could be done to save the building.
From the large engineering building the flames spread to the north shops, although they were constantly under streams of water. Wells hall, the men's dormitory, at the west end of the engineering building, caught fire in several places. By hard work this was extinguished after many students had moved their property.
The Lansing fire department sent men and apparatus, greatly assisting in preventing the spread of the flames. Only the absence of all wind prevented a general conflagration. Sparks were carried to the roofs of several college buildings, but were extinguished before they did any serious damage.
For a time low water pressure hindered the fire fighters.

The Marshall News-Statesman Michigan 1916-03-06
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!