Creighton University

On the early morning of Monday, May 8, 1911, Creighton College was afflicted by a fire, which threatened to demolish its entire main building with its connected north and south wings. It was discovered shortly after two o'clock in room 361 and the third floor of the north wing by Fathers F. Meyer and Bossert who were awakened by the crackling and the red glare of the flames. While they, together with Mr. L. Meyer, were trying to extinguish it with the fire hose which had hardly strength enough to send its stream to the ceiling, Fr. A. Tallmadgo turned in the alarm, which, it seems, a neighbor had just also done. The fire department came very promptly.

The fire had originated in the door lock of the elevator which ran through the room mentioned. The doors of this elevator were then ordinary wooden doors with their upper panels replaced by glass. As the door frames were also of wood, much trouble had been experienced, especially in wet weather, with the proper closing of these doors. The 500-volt direct current which operated this elevator, ran in series through the locks of all doors, so that thereby set fire to the house, and I have reasons the car could not start unless the door was closed. It did do it, however, at times with an open door, so that one of the members of the faculty, on seeing the door open in a dim light and supposing that the car was there, almost fell down the shaft.

In addition to the flimsy construction of the doors, the lock on the third floor had given cause for apprehension in the occasional formation of an arc or flame with a terrific heat an which the current flowed through the air for an inch or two. The three fire-fighters mentioned, together with an examination after the fire, proved that the fire originated in this door lock, from which it then mounted to the ceiling and the attic and then, as this place was at the juncture of the main building and the north wing, it spread to both roofs.

Now this arc could not form by itself in the door lock, nor do we know that anybody used the elevator at that hour of the night. Our night watchman, old Mr. Beveridge, Whose services had been engaged just three days before, was unfortunately unwell that night and did not come to the college. What then caused the arc? My explanation is that the lightning started it, and that the elevator current followed and kept on flowing and for judging so:

First, our elevator wires were strung on poles and stretched from 20th street along Dodge and then along 25th street They entered our grounds between the college and the church, passed the main building to a pole, and then ran up to near the cornice of the roof that is nearest the elevator. The line was thus about 3500 feet long, and if it was struck by lightning at any spot, the bolt would run to earth through our elevator which had one wire permanently grounded. Now there had been a severe thunderstorm a few hours before our fire, and the lightning, to my knowledge, had actually struck our wires at least on two former occasions; There is thus a great probability that it struck this night.

Secondly, this probability is changed to certainty by the fact that on that night I had a lecture table galvanomerer standing under the 550-volt marble switchboard in the northwest corner of the physical cabinet: This instrument was actually struck by lightning that night and its coils burned out. This same accident had happened once before to the same instrument in the same spot.
Thirdly, and more conclusively, the two elevator wires passed through the brick wall of the building each in its own iron conduit pipe. The wires, of course, were covered with rubber insulation. After coming through the wall the wires ran about 18 inches upward for about 4 feet. They then emerged from their conduits and made connection with a meter, which was placed between them in such a way that its top was about a foot below the top of the iron pipes. After the fire the meter was found wrecked, the air part of the wires stripped of insulation, and this is the convincing part of the proof - there was a hole in each pipe on the level and one side of the meter, and on the lower edge of the holes there was a lump which could only come from a sudden and melting heat. A 500-volt pressure could never make these holes at these places, it would take the terrific voltage of a lightning flash to do it. A current of 500 volts would follow the wires, it would never pierce two iron pipes so near their terminals. And to this every electrician will subscribe.

The fire, as said, spread from the elevator room to both attics and roofs. It did so unchecked, because the firemen could not get at it. The only way to reach the attic of the north wing was a stair case in the extreme northwest corner, which was far from the fire. The ceiling of the entire north wing had lately been plated with steel, so that finally an opening had to be broken through it, a ladder inserted and the hose drawn up. In the main building the conditions were much worse, although its ceilings were only of plaster. The only access to this attic was a narrow staircase in the tower over the main entrance.

But worst of all, when the large hall had been divided into four class rooms in 1907, its 21-foot ceiling had been lowered to 14 feet, that is to say, the old ceiling was allowed to remain and the new one built below it and supported by the wooden partitions of the rooms. The fire was under the roof and above the old and upper ceiling, and as it gave no signs of its presence on the third floor, it was not believed to exist. It was only when the lower ceiling began to burn that the fire could be seen. Holes were then broken in the plaster and the stream directed through them. Seven fire companies had come, and at one time there were as many as 14 streams of water thrown upon the fire. This was then confined above the ceiling of the third floor, so that nothing below that level was touched by the fire except the room through which the elevator passed.

When the fire was out and the bright morning sun allowed us to view the scene of destruction, it was found that the entire roof of the main building had been burned, together with the two ceilings mentioned before, but that the fire had fortunately been prevented from entering the tower. In the north wing the entire roof of the east front was gone, and there was a large hole, one half of one of its four panels, in the steel ceiling below it, but the northwest end was safe and sound.

But the water had done and was going to do as much harm as the fire. The entire north wing had steel ceilings and was merely wet, so that the students lost only one day of class. But the rest of the house had then only plaster ceilings, and except for the southwest wing on California street, all the plaster everywhere either fell down of itself, with several hairbreadth escapes on the part of the faculty, or had to be knocked down for safety's sake.

The physics department was then, and is yet, located on the third floor on the east front of the north wing. As its ceilings were of steel, the fire did no damage directly. But the water came down on the cases and into them on the instruments. In order to improve upon their "cheap" appearance, these cases had been lined internally with painted burlap. This now held the water and kept them moist, so that much harm was feared. The instruments were left in their precarious condition for three days, because we did not know whether the insurance men would demand a personal inspection on their part of the state of affairs or not.

As soon as this essential item was settled, the whole physical outfit, except its largest and heaviest instruments, was carried to the attic over the southwest wing, where shelves had been built for its reception, the heavy and bulky apparatus being moved to the corridors of the southeast and southwest wings on the same floor. The students lent willing hands, and it is a pleasure to record that not even one instrument was missed or injured.

The work shop 369 next to the physics lecture room did not have a steel ceiling. Although some plaster fell, water did the most damage. As the door was locked, a fireman skillfully pried it open with so little damage that a carpenter could easily repair it. As the shop contained many fine tools, a special policeman was put on duty to guard them day and night for a week, and then only by day from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. for some time longer. In spite of this, however, a number of small fine and handy tools disappeared.