Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1899 — TORNADO OF FIRE. [ARTICLE]

TORNADO OF FIRE.

Flames Sweep Nebraska Prairies with

Breath of Death. . A prairie fire burning in the hay flats along the northern tier of counties of Nebraska passed into the track of a tornado and was swept with the speed of the wind for many miles, destroying everything in its path. The property damage is known to reach into the thousands, though the only lives lost, so far as known, were those of Mrs. Holla Livingston and her 5-year-old boy. The woman saw the fire coming and ran to a pasture to release the family stock. The boy followed her and both were knocked down by the terrified animals.- The fire passed over them before they conld get out of the way. The body of the boy was almost consumed, and Mrs. Livingston lived but a few hours. A number of large bunches of cattle were overtaken and consumed in the path of the seething mass carried along in the teeth of the tornado. A large number of farm houses were utterly destroyed and the families escaped only by racing beyond the limits of the track of the storm.

The storm of fire is considered the most extraordinary thing that ever visited that section, and it passed through the wealthiest agricultural part of Nebraska.