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Show Menacing Fire Threatens Temple Full details of the fire, which i broke out in the tower of the Ma: ti j temple is given in an article ta on from the Manti Messenger, '.i.io I Manti temple is one of the . four j huge structures located in Utah, the : others being at Salt Lake, Logan j and St. George. The Messenr. v story relating the fire of Sunday, August 26, follows: Fortunately the fire in the temple tower caused by lightning last Sunday Sun-day morning did little damage other than' to give the people of Manti and Ephraim a thrill they will not soon forget. Although the fire burned burn-ed for more than forty-five minutes unmolested in the frame work of the tower top where it was fanned by the breeze, it made scarcely no headway head-way and was easily extinguished when once the fighter could get to it. Due to the great height and what seemed at first its inaccess-ability inaccess-ability it seemed that it would be necessary to allow the wooden part of the tower to be consumed . and arrest the flames from reaching thi) main part of the building. Little damage, however, was done either from fire or water. The east tower of the temple is 179 feet high, the upper thirty feet or more is constructed entirtly cf wood. Crowning the tower rs- a wooden post centered by an iron rod to give it solidarity. It was this rod ; that attracted the lightning which ! struck at 8:30 Sunday morning drr-1 drr-1 ing a passing shower. The lightning followed into the little attic of the tower, starting the fire, causing the south west corner to burst into flames. The thunder crash brought many people out of doors and some one saw the tower burst into flame, and gave the alarm. In less than five minutes from the sounding of the siren, the city hose was on the grounds, but there were no near fire hydrants to accommodate the hose. The temple and grounds are supplied sup-plied with water from a private system sys-tem and the supply was low at that hour due to the sprinkling- system operating during the night. Ample small hose from the inside of , the temple was assembled but low water pressure made the effort useless. Another difficulty was due to the fact that the room just below', the fire, which has a height of about fifteen feet, was filled with smoke, (Continued on last page) MENACING FIRE THREATENS TEMPLE (Continued from page 1) making it impossible to reach the attic - Army gas masks were sent for but before they arrived A. H. Henrie and Erastus Peterson braved the smoke filled room with handkerchiefs handker-chiefs tied over their faces long enough to open the windows and thus liberate the smoke. Wm. Jones, N. J. Alex Niekon and others arrived arriv-ed with gas masks and then with the hose connected to the fire hydrant hy-drant on the fair grounds and in turn connected to the small temple hose, water was applied to the seat of the fire, resulting in its quick control. |