SLEEPY EYE – Bruce Fredrickson was awakened by the loud crackling of a fire about 3 a.m. Saturday.

He jumped out of bed and saw flares leaping in the living room of his second-floor apartment at 10812 Main E.

Fredrickson ran to the back apartment, woke up the tenant, Mrs. Bess Villa, and told her to get out of her apartment and go down the back stairway.

Either before or after he warned Mrs. Villa, Frederickson apparently opened his front window and threw something burning out the window. A driver of a paper truck parked on Main Street saw this and summoned firemen, according to Sleepy Eye Police.

FREDRICKSON SAID he thinks a cigarette fell out of the ashtray, causing the fire.

Fredrickson and Mrs. Villa escaped down the back stairs into the back alley. She was in pajamas and light slippers. “It was might cold,” Mrs. Villa said.

But soon Sleepy Eye Patrolman Pat Krenz arrived and took the pair to his home. Fredrickson later went to the home of his sister, Mrs. Michael Walden.

Mrs. Villa stayed at the Krenz home until the officer came off duty and took her to the home of the owner of her apartment, Harold (Red) Guldager. Mrs. Villa later went to the farm home of her sister, Mrs. George Sommerfeld.

“I wasn’t nervous at the time but now I’m starting to shake,” Mrs. Villa said Saturday morning.

Fredrickson apparently lost all his belongings except some coins he managed to rescue. Everything in Mrs. Villa’s apartment is black with smoke but the insurance company will pay for cleaning, she said.

The first floor of the building, under the apartments, is occupied by the Brown County Soil and Water Conservation office.

Lester Schmidt, head of this office, said water from the fire hoses had tended to run to the middle of the false ceiling in his office and did some damage to maps and aerial photos lying on desks.

New Ulm Daily Journal

March 2, 1975