La Crosse, WI manufacturing and wholesale district fire, Mar 1907

$200,000 Fire Wrecks Heart Of Waterfront Of La Crosse, Wis.

La Crosse, Wis., March 29. - Two big properties were entirely destroyed and neighboring establishments were damaged, the whole loss reaching $200,000, and 200 people thrown out of employment as the result of a fire in the heart of the manufacturing and wholesale district along the Mississippi River front here today. Within two hours the plant of the La Crosse Cracker and Candy Company and the wholesale plumbing supply house of The W. A. Roosevelt Company had been wiped out and the flour and feed mill of Gross & Sons and plant of T. P. Benton & Son, manufacturers of engines, had been seriously damaged. The flames spread so rapidly that for a time it was feared the entire block between Front street and the river, which included a number of large factories and wholesale houses, would be wiped out, but with the wind dying down and rain falling the firemen were able to beat back the flames.

The fire started supposedly from spontaneous combustion above the oven in the cracker factory building.

The Boston Journal, Boston, MA 30 Mar 1907
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!