News Article Fire at the Paris Hotel, Swift Co.,MN ========================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE:In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find the submitter information or other files for this county. FileFormatted by Terri--MNArchives Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Judy VanVleet Submitted: October 2004 ========================================================================= No date on this one Fire guts Paris Hotel, landmark in county seat An early estimate of damage from the fire that destroyed the Paris Hotel building in Benson on Thursday, has been placed at between $400,000 and $500,000 by the owner of the structure, Robert Chevalier. Plans to rebuild have not yet been considered. The fire was discovered by Al Stucke, an employee of Chevalier, shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Stucke discovered smoke in the back of the building. He notified the Benson Fire Department and helped to evacuate the occupants of the 24 furnished apartments and eight efficiencies. The entire building was engulfed in smoke by 8:45 a. m., but flames did not break through the building until nearly 10. The inferno remained out of control until about 11. Firemen from Willmar were called for assistance at 8:50 and departments from Morris, Kerkhoven, Murdock and Hancock were called later. Firemen were able to confine the blaze to the hotel building, but the possibility of its spreading was high, due to the fact that it was only possible to fight it from the outside and the windows were difficult to break. The changing wind direction also caused some consternation. A crane was brought in about 11:30 to knock down the walls for protection and ease in fighting and containing the fire. Some of the businesses on the ground floor and neighboring stores were able to rescue most of their papers and merchandise. Offices included in the building were those of Attorneys Barnard, Hilleran and Spates; dentist offices of Dr. W. A. Sund; Carlson Jewelry: Richard Dale's Paris Barber Shop; a collection service; Farmers Home Administration; and the Young Set, children's clothing. Cause of the fire is still not known, but it is suspected that the blaze started in the area of the water heater. A skeleton crew of Benson firemen were at the scene throughout the night.