From the Cortez Herald June 11, 1931

Damage estimated at $3,500 when the highway shop and tools were destroyed by a most spectacular blaze in Cortez of recent years. Luckily most of road machinery was out at work. Firefighters and large crowds endangered by exploding gasoline, oil and chemicals.

The Saturday shopping crowd from the rural districts, tourists who happened to be in Cortez and practically everyone in town watched the spectacular blaze that destroyed the county highway barn and threatened the courthouse for an hour or more beginning about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. (Location was First Street in area of Citizens State Bank parking lot between South Elm and South Chestnut Streets.)

The blaze started when Art Seihl, who was in charge of the prairie dog poison, went into the room and into the building in which the poison was stored, to draw some carbon bisulfide for L. B. Stevens of Lewis. The next thing he knew he said there was a flame that amounted practically to an explosion in the fume laden air of the room. His pants legs burning, he ran out of the building fearing the instant explosion of the 40-gallon container of carbon bisulfide. After beating the flames out on his clothing he ran to turn in the alarm.

The volunteer firemen experienced difficulty in getting their equipment into action on account of worn out sections of hose. But that fact may have saved some lives for about the time they would have pressed up close to the building there was an explosion of the gasoline stored in the building and several barrels of oil also used in prairie dog extermination work.

With this explosion, which broke open the building, that had been tightly closed, the flames and dense clouds of smoke poured out so that the sun was obscured and the crowd had to withdraw because of the intense heat.

It looked very much like the old barn, a wooden structure, immediately adjoining the courthouse was doomed but the firemen taking long chances took the strings of the hose alongside the walls that were smoking from the heat of the fire and beat the flames back. If the old barn had ever caught and burned in the wind that sprang up about that time the courthouse would also have burned. County Assessor, J. G. Dunning, upon seeing the probability that this building would go, began removing the records from his office — it being the only one which did not have a vault. The records in the first office and that of the Treasurer and County Judge were placed in the safety of fireproof vaults.

The danger past and with the highway barn almost entirely consumed, the men advanced upon the fire confident in being able to put it out in a short time. Just as they reached the place where the walls formerly stood there was another and, by far, the most violent explosion. A steel barrel containing oil had finally given way to the pressure of the oil inside and evidently the entire contents went into the sky with a roar and a ball of flame and smoke. At a considerable height the ball seemed to again explode — a giant smoke ring was formed while attaining great altitude without breaking. It was a remarkable sight but car owners who had their machines in the vicinity were not very appreciative after they found their cars spotted as though they had been in a rain of hot oil. The firefighters fell back and shot water on the ruins of the building from a safer distance. Had the barrel been on its side when the top gave way, things might have been disastrous indeed. Fortunately for the Montezuma County taxpayers, most of the road equipment was out at work and the loss was confined to the building and shop tools. One of the new Caterpillars was in town but had been taken to a service station to receive a cleaning instead of being placed in the shop as is generally done with the machines. Two trucks that were no longer in serviceable condition were burned. The building and contents insured for $2,000, which will cover a little over half the estimated loss.

“Looking Back” articles are published on the first Friday of each month by The Montezuma County Historical Society. June Head is the historian and can be contacted at 565-3880 for comments, corrections or additions.