The town council announced that the Presbyterian Church bell would be used in case of emergencies.  The following year, in 1926, a new electric siren was erected on a 10-foot tower on the Brenton-Loring building, presently housing Hoover Hardware and Uptown Cafe.  One switch was in the telephone office on the second floor, the other at street level.

          The third major fire in the Dallas Center business district occured November 16, 1937.  Headlines - $50,000 Fire Loss; Four Buildings Razed In Most Destructive Fire in History of Dallas Center.

          It was 5:10 p.m. when the sounding of the electric siren brought an excited crowd onto main street. Fire had broken out in the basement area of the Schramm Drug Store at the southwest corner of the business block.  The four buildings where were destroyed were of solid brick or brick veneered construction.  Valuable merchandise, barber equipment, furnishings of the Masonic Hall, some of the furnishings of the post office, Brenton's Bank and groceries and sundries from Helfenstein and Royer's were lost.  Ironically, the town water tank had been drained and repaired and was not yet refilled.  Thus it was necessary to summon fire trucks from Perry, Adel, Grimes, Waukee and Granger.  Post office records were lost but all first class mail was saved by postmaster O. F. Ward and assistant, Mary Miller.  Articles from the bank and store were piled across the street in a jumbled mess.  A fire wall east of Helfenstein and Royer's stopped the fire from progressing further east.  Swigert's Cash Grocery Store and Fox Insurance building which housed Mike Dignan's Barber Shop in the basement were saved, although much of value had been removed as a safety precaution.

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IN MEMORY OF

John Frederick & Mary Ellerman Peitzman          Jim Mash, Blacksmith 1916 - 1968

Frederick & Nellie Bohrofen Peitzman                                Thomas (Bunk) Denton