By Carson Ellis
For the Independent
In the chilly, early morning hours of Oct. 3, 1952, a man by the name of Ward Averill noticed flames coming from the apartments above the Stettler Garage. The residents above the garage were Vera Gleave and her father Gordon Gleave. Vera managed to escape the burning building, however, her father perished in the blaze. Soon the fire spread to the Stettler Independent building. Residents above the Independent managed to escape by crawling out of windows as well as down a back flight of stairs.
By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the garage was deemed beyond saving, and their focus became keeping the blaze contained, especially towards the back of the Independent building. It was noted that the heat from the blaze cracked windows on the buildings on the south side of the street. The fire was successfully contained, and practically extinguished by 5 a.m. that morning, having been spotted and eliminated within two hours.
In the basement of the office building was the printing center of the local paper. The heart of the printing operation included a Linotype machine, which was purchased in 1916. It operated by stamping characters into a long band of paper, which would later be used to cast mold the words and letters. This was an advantage over the old system of placing each character one by one. There was also a printing press and a machine that folded the pages accordingly. Although this equipment was saved, it was badly water damaged, and rather useless. It should be noted that even with damaged equipment, a burnt down office, and temporary location, the Independent still put out an issue the following deadline.
After the Stettler Independent fire of 1908, the owner/operator of the Stettler Independent, Mr. Charles Willis, bought a lot where the Union Hotel once stood.
After the fire, the Independent rebuilt on the Alberta Avenue lot, and their printing center received a major upgrade, which included type casters, automatic job presses and an engraver allowing the paper to print photographs. The Stettler Independent carried on in their rebuilt Alberta Avenue location for many years before finally moving to the main street.
