Fire plays havoc in McClellan Hotel

Twenty-two hotel rooms, two doctors' offices and

a tavern went up in oily smoke Sunday night after

fire broke out in the furnace room of the McClellan Hotel

in North Bend.

Immediately after the fire, the loss was estimated

at $25,000. But since then representatives from many

building trades have gone through the gutted building

and found that plumbing, heating, wiring and much of

the construction are all gone, as well as furniture and

decorations. The exact size of the loss is still unknown.

The fire was detected about eight o'clock

Sunday night when the managers, Mr. and Mrs. Clem

Zuncs, were on the second floor renting a room. They saw

smoke coming up, through the cracks between the

floorboards, and immediately turned in the alarm.

Fast Response

The North Bend Fire Department responded immediately. Two trucks raced to the scene, manned by

17 volunteers under the leadership of Acting Fire

Chief George Cleven. Next the Snoqualmie Fire

Department was called in; 18 firemen, one fire truck and the

emergency car pitched in to help their neighbors.

The Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. sent two water trucks.

Five tenants were evacuated from the hotel

rooms; the McClellan is largely a residential hotel and

many occupants were away for the weekend. Hundreds of

dollars' worth of equipment in the first floor offices of

Dr. Olliver, the physical therapist, and Dr. Littlefield,

optometrist, were rescued and removed across the

street to the showroom of Fred Lewis Motors. The

rescue squad included Fred Lewis, Dr. Borgen, Al Scott and

a number of sympathetic and energetic bystanders.

All equipment was saved except for a card table.

Some Injuries

Fireman Willie Wilkinson, of North Bend,

received cuts about the face and had to be treated at Nelems

Memorial Hospital, and several other firemen were

sick from the gassy smoke. But according to Mr. and

Mrs. Al Scott, owners of the hotel, they did a remarkable

job to save as much of the structure as they did, for the

fire was hard to locate and therefore extremely hard to fight.

The firemen fought the blaze until midnight. By

then it seemed to be quelled, but the walls were still hot,

and so North Bend's town marshal Vern Clark, Mr.

Zuncs, and Mrs. Dorothy Cooper, formerly a manager at

the hotel, stayed to keep watch through the night.

According to Mrs. Scott, the building held up as

well as it did because of a heavy "outside" wall, which

runs through the center of the building. The reason for that

is deep in the history of North Bend. The first section

of the hotel was built in 1918 by W.C. McClellan and

his sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary McClellan. About two

years afterwards, a second section was added, and still later,

a third, which is now the Marshall-Wells hardware

store. Therefore the strong inner wall is really the outer

wall of the first section of the building _ but it was a

blessing Sunday night.

At present the Scotts have no idea when the

hotel will be rebuilt or how long the job will take. Dr.

Olliver is headquartered temporarily in the North Bend Clinic.

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