Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1910 — INDIANA FOREST FIRES [ARTICLE]

INDIANA FOREST FIRES

House, Barn, Timber and Fencing Worth $20,000 Burns. Blaze Started From Burning of Brush Pile and Is Still Raging—Flames Have Swept 2,000 Acres. Columbus, Ind., March 25.—The burning of a brush pile Monday afternoon by Mrs. William Hayden on the farm of Howard J. Tooley, in Harrison township, started a fire that is still raging in that and Union township and has already destroyed the home and barns of Frank Bishop and done probably $20,000 worth of other damage. The fire has swept over 2,000 acres of land, most of which was timbered, destroying the timber and fencing. Rfesidents of ihe burned district have been fighting the fire day and night since it started but have been unable to check it, as the leaves and other vegetation are dry as tinder It was with much difficulty that the residence and barns of Howard J. Tooley were saved. Mrs. Hayden, wife of a tenant on the Tooley farm, sought to burn a pile of brush near her home, when the flames leaped across a strip of plowed ground and into some grass and leaves and was at once beyond any control whatever.