Peter Hefty saw the danger first.
On the afternoon of May 12, 1926, fire broke out in the nearby Streiff and Dumholdt Livery barn at 19 Fifth Ave., a working barn and garage tied to the railroad, the depot and the movement of freight through New Glarus. Hefty sounded the alarm. Then he and his brother, Henry Hefty, tried to save what they could from the burning building.
But they could not save the barn.
Within minutes, the fire had grown from a local blaze into a village-wide emergency. The livery barn “belched smoke and flame,” according to a later historical account, and the danger quickly spread beyond the building itself. A nearby residence was seriously damaged and nearly destroyed. At least 10 roofs were burning across town. Sparks, embers, burning chips and shingles were being lifted by a brisk northeast wind and thrown across New Glarus.
This was not a fire contained to one property.
It was a fire on the hunt to burn the whole town.
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