Yankee Hill Brickyard Fire

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Friday, October 13, 1933, a fire destroyed a storage building and a large amount of equipment at the Yankee Hill Brick Company. The Yankee Hill Brick Company is located south of Pioneers Park. Eldon Beahr, who lived near the plant, was the first to see the blaze. He said that the fire apparently started inside the building near the center. The only cause was believed to be from spontaneous combustion as there was some rubbish in the building. 

A crowd gathered to watch the flames. They were kept a safe distance from the buildings because of the danger of an explosion of the fifty or sixty pounds of dynamite and fuse caps that were stored there. Fortunately the dynamite never exploded. 

Tools, electric and gasoline motors, barrels of oil and gasoline, and wooden kiln forms were stored in the building. The building measured thirty by ninety feet. The roof of the building, constructed of galvanized tin and wood, caved in completely. Firemen were forced to fight the blaze without a water line. Because of the wooden forms and frame working as fuel, the fire was still burning early the next morning. J. A. Collins, superintendent of the plant, said the damage totaled about $4,000. 

Source: Nebraska State Journal, Saturday, October 14, 1933, page 1, column 4.