Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1914 — A Couple of Fortunate Fire Losses. [ARTICLE]

A Couple of Fortunate Fire Losses.

R. B. Harris has had a couple of peculiar fire losses quite recently, peculiar in the fact that the loss was not, much greater and his companies called on to pay several times the amount of insurance did. The first was up on the James Barber farm,'some ten miles north of Rensselaer. Lightning struck in the gable end of the barn, run along the iron hay carrier to the opposite end and down an iron ladder- —an old windmill ladder—and killed two horses, one of which belonged to P. B. Downs of Rensselaer. The men folks were standing near and they hustled up in the hay loft where quite a number of tons of hay was stored, and fpund a small blaze started. A couple of buckets of water put out the fire and saved both building and contents. The other instance was at the D. H. Yeoman farm west of Surrey, occupied by one of the Chupps. In attempting to start up a smouldering fire, Mrs. Chupp got hold of the gasoline can instead of the coal oil. Result, an explosion that singed her hair, burned her skin somewhat and set fire to the kitchen.- Her young babe lay upstairs in bed, and her first thought was of it. She rushed up the stairs and brought the babe down in her arms, having to pass through the kitchen, which had been set afire by the explosion. Fortunately the men folks were nearby and the blaze was extinguished with perhaps $75 to SIOO damage to the house, w'hich was practically new, having been built only some three or four years ago.