Early on Aug. 14, 1939, several firefighters were overcome by smoke at a fire at the Elks Club at 126 West High Street as they searched for the building caretaker. Fire Chief Grover Frock was told the caretaker, Ernest Munz, slept in a storeroom, which The Springfield Daily News described as ``a veritable inferno.'' However, Munz was found in another part of the building sound asleep and ``unaware of the fire,'' according to the News.
