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Show Disaisvmm Fre Destroys Grow Ihere Wednesday IMiglw Fireman Battle 1 Blaze For Three Hours After three hours of hard work by the members of the Pleasant Grove and American Fork fire departments, the fire -which gutted the Grove Theatre was finally brought under control- The blaze which started with an exposion at 12:05 a.m. Thursday in the north west corner of the show house, was raging almost instantly, and sprrcad with great rapidity, racing along the carpeted aisles, to the front of the building and burning the drapes and carpets- The seats were also badly burned, and the ceiling of the building and the upper portion of, the building is seriously damaged. , The explosion blew open the north exit doors and parts of the curtains and drapes were outside of the building when the fire department de-partment arrived- Keith Miller, local theatre manager, man-ager, and Grant Nielson, made an inspection of the theatre at 11:55 just before Mr. Miller locked up the show house and went home and in just ten minutes the explosion occurred- The alarm was turned in by Kenneth Crawford, a steel plant employee who was returning home from work. Mr- Crawford, a quarter quart-er of a mile away saw the blast as the exposion opened the two north exit doors. The Pleasant Grove fire department depart-ment were on the job within a few minutes and the American Fork department were on the job about 12:30 and the 20 volunteer fireman battled the blaze for about three hours before they reported the fire extinguished. The theatre is owned by John -II. " Milter-of American Fork, and was operated by his son, Keith D. Miller. The latter said this morning morn-ing the theater carried insurance I but he would have to check to see how much. Two other theaters owned by the Millers in North Utah county have ' been hit by fires within the past several years- They are the Royal Theatre in Lehi which was ' gutted by a blaze only a few years ago, and the Cameo theatre in American Fork which burned down prior to that time. Much credit has been given to the two fire departments for the work done Wednesday night, inasmuch inas-much as the Grove Theatre is located loc-ated in tHe heart of the business district with buildings adjoining the structure which have a valuation valu-ation of several hundred thousand thous-and dollars, and to keep the fire from spreading to the other buildings build-ings is a mighty fine piece of work.-The work.-The actual cost of rebuilding the Grove Theatre has not yct been determined, but at present prices, it no doubt will run between thirty and forty thousand dollars, although al-though some have estimated it as low as $20,000. |