Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1898 — Poultice Starts a Fire. [ARTICLE]

Poultice Starts a Fire.

Pipe insurance companies liave all sorts of experiences and their officers can tell many curious stories. One of the queerest.fires fell within the business of the Connecticut [Fire Insurance Company of this city recently. A house was set on tire by a bathtub and the tub was set on tire by a poultice. A man in a Western city was suffering from a bad cold and bis wife, at the doctor’s orders, prepared a poultice for his chest. When she started to put It on it proved to be too hot. Accordingly she took it to the bathroom and set it into the bathtub to cool. This happened to be a fine tub liqed with celluloid, which served as a sort of enamel. The heat of the poultice started the celluloid a-going and the burning tub set things going generally. The department was called out and the house was well wet down, for which the company had to pay. This, so far as is known, is the first instance on record where a bathtub set a house on fire or where a poultice kindled a bathtub.—Hartford Courant.