Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1896 — Almost Another Fire. [ARTICLE]

Almost Another Fire.

There was another cjose escape from a disastrous fire, Monday afternoon; this time in no less prominent a place than Ellis & Murray’s store. E. D. Rhoades, one of their salesmen, while waiting on a lady customer, chanced to place one of his well polished and poniard pointed number 9 shoes*on a match on the floor, ” behind the counter, and in a minute a big pile of cotton batting under the counter was all in a blaze. Mr Rhoades got in some very quick and very effective work with an improvised fire extinguisher, in the a woolen blanket, and soon got the fire out. But it was a close escape for a fire in such inflammable material would need but a few seconds’ start to get entirely beyond control. There is no patent on the use of woolen blankets as fire extinguishers, and people should make a note of the fact. Neither is there any penalty for dropping ‘dive” matches behind store counters, but there ought to be.