City firefighters respond to 9th fire in past 13 days, says chief

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

ESSIG -- With yet another burned house in the background, Capt. Tom Macho of the New Ulm Fire Department sat down to rest on the rear bumper of a fire truck and lit a cigarette.

Monday was a long day for Macho and the rest of the New Ulm Fire Department as two fires essentially destroyed a warehouse in New Ulm and a house in Essig.

The two fires followed a pair that happened in New Ulm over the weekend. Throughout the fires, only two people were injured and those injuries were minor.

New Ulm Fire Chief David Wolf said the Essig fire is the ninth fire the department has responded to in 13 days. While the new year has seen some rescue work, Wolf said, most of NUFD's calls so far have been to active fires.

"It's been a busy January," he said. "It's been a busy year."

At around 9 a.m. Monday morning, four 911 calls came in, reporting a fire at the New Ulm Telecom warehouse off 20th South Street. Firefighters were on the scene at 9:20 a.m. and had the fire under control nearly one hour later, but spent another hour clearing the scene and had everything wrapped up by 11:30 a.m.

Macho said he was just about to leave the fire station for a lunch break after he got back, when another fire call came in at 3:20 p.m. This time, it was a house at 24591 Main St. in Essig.

Firefighters arrived around 3:30 p.m. to find dark grey smoke pouring from the house's windows and doors. They began fighting the fire by breaking in the house's front door and later broke out two second-floor windows. The fire was found on the second floor and was said to have started in a closet there and quickly spread, charring the entire floor.

The fire department called its hook-and-ladder truck a few minutes later. Firefighters went to work cutting a hole in the house's roof in order to allow more oxygen inside. The house received severe smoke and water damage. Wolf said the fire easily caused $30,000 in damage to the house.

Fortunately, no one was home at the time the fire was reported, although firefighters did bring an orange tabby cat from the house after the blaze was contained.

While the cause of the Essig house fire hasn't been determined yet, the New Ulm Telecom fire started in a dumpster, went up a wall and into the building's ceiling. It caused an unknown amount of damage to some NU Telecom vehicles and inventory and damaged the building itself.

The two fires came one day after a house fire at a home at 1706 N. Payne Street on Sunday night that injured two people and caused severe damage to the house. NUFD said that fire was caused by some grease in the kitchen.

Nearly one day earlier, a house near 2nd North and Jefferson Streets received $8,000 worth of structural damage after some fertilizer spontaneously combusted in its garage.

Both Wolf and First Assistant Fire Chief David Christian said they've never seen so many fires happen in so short a period of time, although they traditionally happen in groups around the same time of year after a long period of absence.

Christian said the trend doesn't bother him because the causes are known in all the fires NUFD has fought with the exception of the Essig fire. Even so, another trend could be on the rise if houses continue to burn -- tired firefighters.

Said Christian, "This was 48 hours of hell."