On This Date in Minnesota History: June 26

June 26, 1910 – John Koivisto, a shoemaker in Duluth, lit a match in his home this morning to find out what was causing a peculiar odor in the house, and now four members of his family are in the hospital and one of them is dying.

The home and the saloon next door were wrecked by a heavy explosion. The peculiar odor that Koivisto detected was caused by a leak in the gas main.

Mrs. Koivisto and two children are in the hospital and one of them, a girl five years old, has but a few hours to live.

The walls of the house were torn outward. The saloon building owned by Ole Olson was of brick and was utterly ruined. The force of the explosion broke windows in the Astoria Hotel a block away. The wrecked buildings were old and small, and the damage will not exceed $2,500.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Gas Explosion Is Fatal. Lighted Match Fires Duluth Room Filled From Leaky Main—Three May Die.”; June 27, 1910; p. 1.

http://www.health.umn.edu/about/living-minnesota/duluth

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