Open and Oper- Welded Into the Frames So That Ate the Store by Myself on That There Was a Thump Every Time Day

FootPrints Dedicated to Preserving and Promoting Historic Resources in the Truckee Meadows through Education, Advocacy and Leadership. vol. 18 no. 1 Winter 2015 Disaster on Sierra Street by Jerry Fenwick Prologue streets. It took a number of days to complete and test the instal- he 1957 Chrysler cars and their unique style gave lation. Each day between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., I would Chrysler Corporation its most profitable year up to walk from our store, Fenwick’s, on the southwest corner of that time. The 1957 high-finned designs, that looked Commercial Row and Sierra Street, south on Sierra Street to its T intersection with Liberty, where I would turn left and walk east like they were speeding along even when parked, had captured the imagination of the automobile buying public, and sales to the intersection with Virginia Street. I planned to do that same were booming. At the same time, negotiations with the United walk on the fifth of February, but my parents had an invitation Automobile Workers Union were not going well. There was to visit the paint company that we represented, Bishop-Conklin a lot of sabotage along the assembly line. Coke bottles were Paints, in Los Angeles on that day. Thus, I had to open and oper- welded into the frames so that ate the store by myself on that there was a thump every time day. Someone was looking out the vehicle came to a stop, wire for me, because otherwise I would have been somewhere on rings with washers were welded the west side of N. Sierra Street into the fins to create a loud between W. First Street and rattle, and parts were deliber- the Truckee River at a landmark ately installed incorrectly. moment in Reno history. I had purchased a Dodge Setting the Scene Custom Royal Lancer hardtop with a hemi V8 engine and Today, fine modern buildings single four-barrel carburetor. line both sides of N. Sierra Street Not long after taking delivery, between the Truckee River and there was a loud clatter and W. First Street. On February 5, the engine stalled. The Chrysler 1957, there were different fine dealer found that the muffler buildings on both sides of the had been incorrectly installed, same block on N. Sierra Street. causing a train of events that On the east side of the street caused a valve to stick so that The blast first occurred in the Nevada Shoe Factory on the left the Elks Club overlooked the a piston struck it, ruining the and spread to Paterson’s on the corner of West First and North river, with the Stack Building engine. Chrysler sent a new Sierra streets. Photo by Jerry Cobb. housing Gray-Reid-Wright engine that actually had been department store on the corner prepared for NASCAR racing. It took some time to obtain all of W. First Street. On the west side of Sierra Street, adjacent to of the necessary parts, but I was able to get all of the parts to the river, was the Sanford-Biltz building with legal, insurance install twin four-barrel carburetors and a manifold on top of and real estate offices. Next door was the building housing the engine, creating a true NASCAR engine. Cambar Fabrics, Tait’s Shoe Store and Nevada Shoe Factory, and on the corner of W. First Street was the new building housing The work was being done at Hermann & Wilson Chrysler- Paterson’s Mens Store and Sunderland’s Shoes. Around the Plymouth on the northeast corner of Liberty and South Virginia Continued on page 2 1 historicreno.org FootPrints Vol. 18 No. 1, Winter 2015 Disaster on Sierra Street (continued) Continued from page 1 as N. Sierra Street near the Truckee River. The announcer soon revised the location to the intersection of N. Sierra Street and W. First streets and gave instructions from the police to stay corner, facing W. First Street and behind Paterson’s, was the J. away from the area. Soon the police began going from store E. Slingerland Insurance Agency. Had it not been for my parents’ to store issuing instructions for store employees to close and trip, I probably would have been in the area of the Nevada Shoe for everyone to leave the immediate downtown area. There Factory at 1:00 p.m. was fear of further explosions because the exact cause of the The weather was typical of early February with temperatures explosion was as yet unknown, though there had been a strong starting in the teens and expected to rise to the low fifties. odor of gas reported by some people in the area. Two blocks up the street to the north, it had been a quiet The Explosion morning in our store located in the northeast corner of the Travelers Hotel building on the corner of Sierra and During the morning, there were complaints of a gas smell by Commercial Row. Our store occupied a space on the first employees and customers of the businesses on the west side floor and basement while the hotel occupied the entire of Sierra Street between the river and First Street. Calls were second floor. There had been some remodeling of plumbing finally made to Sierra Pacific Power Company where employees fixtures in the hotel, and a short time earlier a bathtub had were dispatched to check on the smell. When one of the been improperly installed. The employees entered Paterson’s, plumber had failed to hook up the smell of gas was strong, and the drain, and when a guest he immediately ordered everyone took a bath the water came out of the building. After calling through the pressed metal the power company for more ceiling leaving us with a mess help and the fire department for to mop up. Thank goodness it assistance with fans to ventilate wasn’t a toilet! and disperse the fumes, both men started down the street to I was facing the back wall of the warn the buildings’ occupants. store, where there was a clock The power company employees reading 1:00 p.m., when there were in the basement of the was a loud bang or thump. Nevada Shoe Factory trying to Thinking that the upstairs locate the boilers in the dark workers might have dropped when the explosion occurred. a bathtub, I checked with the Both men survived the explosion hotel, to see if they knew the Looking north from the Sierra Street Bridge, the Elks Club and one even continued to aid cause of the noise. Just then, burns on right and the Sanford-Biltz building burns on the left other victims. there was a second loud thump, with the heart of the blast in the center of the photo. and I saw the doorjamb actually Photo by Jimmy Smith. The force of the explosion and rise above the front doors of the the heat of the fire were so store so that I could see daylight between the jamb and the top intense that the steel girders supporting the roof and walls of of the doors. the Nevada Shoe Factory building were twisted like a nest of snakes. Flaming debris was blown across Sierra Street, setting Now I knew that it was something more serious than a fire to the Elks Club and Gray-Reid-Wright’s store. Directly dropped bathtub and hurried outside to try to see what had north of the Nevada Shoe Factory, the Paterson’s-Sunderland’s happened. The wails of sirens were coming both from the store was destroyed with only the north wall along First direction of the fire station a block away and the vicinity of the Street remaining. Debris set fire to the Biltz-Sanford building police department on E. Second Street. I looked south down to the south, destroying the building and its contents, which Sierra Street where the thumps seemed to have come from to included a large legal library belonging to the building owner, see a large, billowing plume of black smoke rising. There were attorney William Sanford. The windows on the north side of large pieces of what appeared to be roofing material floating the Home Furniture business on W. First Street were shat- down like tree leaves in the fall. tered, resulting in extensive damage from flying glass to the merchandise on display. Since there was nothing else that I could see or do, I returned to the store to listen to the radio, hoping to hear where and why Automobiles parked in the rear of the buildings on the west the explosions had occurred. The first reports gave the location side of Sierra Street were crushed by falling brick walls. Other 2 FootPrints Vol. 18 No. 1, Winter 2015 historicreno.org Disaster on Sierra Street (continued) autos were set on fire, and one gas tank exploded, sending a Aftermath ball of fire into the air. Tow trucks did manage to move some The Stack Building which had housed Gray-Reid-Wright of the automobiles in the area and others along the streets to department store was rebuilt. However, Gray-Reid’s had moved safety out of the explosion area. first to a temporary location, then north to 525 Virginia Street, The first fire vehicle on the scene arrived just in time for the on the northwest corner of Virginia and Fifth streets, today’s explosion and was struck by debris, resulting in considerable location of Circus-Circus. The newly rebuilt Stack Building was damage to the truck as well as its occupants.

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