Minot, March 22.—During the progress of the moving picture show at the Lyceum theater last Wednesday night, about 8:30 fire started in the fire proof machine booth of the place and in a few moments a thousand dollars' worth of damage was done.

J. E. McCutcheon, who was operating the machine, escaped death narrowly, but both of his hands were painfully burned.

The picture machine, valued at $175 was burned and about $500 worth of films went up in smoke within a few moments. These are a total loss as it is impossible to carry insurance on them. The building was damaged about $500, which was fully covered by insurance. The crowd walked out in very orderly fashion and no one was injured. The fire was confined to the booth and the actors did not know that anything unusual had happened until the fire was practically over.

The fire department was called out and extinguished the flames with chemicals.

The theatre fortunately had another picture machine, and the attractions are being given without interruption.

The fire may have started from a short electrical circuit.

Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, 3/22/1912