Feb 26, 1904 - Madison, WI
In the evening a gas jet ignited a newly-varnished ceiling in the capitol building. A night watchman on his rounds smelled smoke. The Capitol had
been wired for electricity, but some gas jets were still in use.
The Capitol had a $20,000 sprinkler system and was connected to both the city water supply and the state supply, which was located atop UW-Madison's main hall.
An engineer at the university had drained the tanks on top of Main Hall while cleaning a boiler. Gov. Robert La Follette telegraphed a request to Milwaukee and
Janesville for help. Both responded in record time, loading their equipment on trains. The Milwaukee Fire Department made it to Madison in 96 minutes, but they
found the frigid weather had frozen the pumpers, and they had to wait for them to thaw.
Volunteers, including hundreds of university students, also fought the fire. La Follette ran into the building again and again to save state documents and directing
people as they removed records and furniture. The students climbed ladders to the upper stories where the State Law Library was and began pitching books to the
snow banks below.
The fire burned on for 20 hours. The entire structure except the north wing burned to the ground.
Unfortunately, La Follette had ordered the State Historical Society to return the revered remains of "Old Abe," the bald eagle that accompanied the Wisconsin 8th
Regiment in the Civil War, to the Capitol just a year or two before the fire. So the stuffed body of Old Abe also went up in the blaze.
Photos on Wisconsin Historical Society
