Students often hope a blizzard or power outage will grant them an extended weekend – anything to get out of a test or assignment. For students in Fargo, Lakota, and Bottineau, it was fire that kept them from school in 1916, 1917 and 1918.
The first fire involved Fargo high school. A report on the fire appeared on this date in 1916 in the Bismarck Tribune. It was estimated that the fire caused 75,000 dollars in damage, much of that in textbooks. The Tribune joked that the students looked upon those destroyed books “without visible signs of sadness.” Luckily for this school, ninety percent of the damage was covered by insurance, and after a week’s break, the students returned to school in relocated classrooms, acting as if the fire had never happened.
The second fire occurred almost exactly a year later. On December 27th, 1917, the Bottineau Courant reported that the local high school burned down the previous morning. Officials speculated that the fire started with the boiler in the basement or a faulty wire somewhere. Nothing could be saved at the school. All the records and property were wiped out. The damage was estimated at $30,000, with only $9,000 of it covered by insurance.
The third fire fire occurred less than a year later in Lakota. In May 1918, Lakota High School nearly burned to the ground. The interesting part about this fire was that a 13-year-old boy confessed that he had purposely started it! He admitted to pouring oil all over the stairs, throwing oil-soaked rags on top, then lighting it all on fire. The boy offered no reason for his actions.
Three high schools within a year of each other – two almost on the same day a year apart. In the end, it was lucky that none of the fires resulted in death or injury. Hopefully, the students enjoyed the time off!
Dakota Datebook by Olivia Burmeister
Sources:
- The Bottineau courant., December 27, 1917, Image 1
- The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, December 28, 1916, Image 1
- The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, January 04, 1917, Image 6
- The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, January 03, 1917, Image 6
- The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, May 28, 1918, Image 6
