Well, I guess it turned out to be a successful tour--
Even with (perhaps) too many people trying to cross streets and even with trying to navigate through the new Wednesday Farmer's Market on Washington Street, "Burn Baby Burn: The Infernos of Downtown Marquette" is now in the books. If I had to guess, I'd say there were between 200 and 250 people joining me on the stroll, as we talked about burning buildings, told a bunch of bad jokes, and shared a very sad story that I don't think anyone in the crowd actually knew about--
The story of the Stensrud fire.
On the 300 south block of Front Street there's a very unassuming building called the Stensrud Building. It's two stories now and the home to Marquette's Knights of Columbus, but back in 1948 it was three stories tall and home to, as it turns out, an unlicensed rooming house. It was so unlicensed that it had never been inspected, and the people running it didn't even know their tenants' names, only their nicknames.
And when it caught fire in 1948 and killed eight of those tenants in the deadliest fire in Marquette history, they still didn't know who some of the tenants were.
In fact, I'm not quite sure if they ever fully identified one or two of the victims of the blaze, which started when someone who'd been drinking fell asleep while smoking. Since the building had never been inspected or licensed there was only one entrance, no fire suppression system, and no way out for several of the tenants who had mobility problems. Perhaps it's surprising more people didn't die.
I don't know if there was a cover-up or if people just didn't want to think about what had happened, but there isn't much in the official record about the fire. As far as I can tell no one ever went to jail for it, or that anyone was even fined. But it was the 40s and the people who perished were indigent and/or drifters, so maybe no one cared. I do know that in one the articles I saw the city was vowing to crack down on any other unlicensed rooming houses that may have existed.
For their sake, I hope they did.
Like I said, it's a story that hardly any one (if anyone) in Marquette is aware of, and it's one of those stories that I really think should be shared. So, if you've ever wondered why I do these tours, the Stensrud fire is one of those reasons why.
And I hope the people on the tour last night appreciated learning about it.
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