Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1907 — BIG BLAZE NIPPED IN BUD [ARTICLE]

BIG BLAZE NIPPED IN BUD

Oil Stove Starts Fire In Rosenbaum Rooming Apartments That Is Quickly Extinguished. Fire Chief Montgomery and two or three of his assistants with chemical hand engines succeeded in extinguishing a blaze in the rooms over Ferguson & Ferguson’s law office Thursday evening that had a healthy start and would in a very few minutes have been beyond control. _ The rooms were rented by the Model Restaurant proprietress, Mrs. A. Rosenbaum, who had them nicely furnished to transient roomers. There are three rooms on the left of the stairway, a front and rear bed room and an office in the center. The partitions are of inch boards covered with wall paper. An oil- stove in the eenter of the office was responsible for the fire* being started, but no one seems to know who had lighted the stove, the party having one of the rooms rented stating that he had not lighted it. How the blaze had communicated to the carpet is also a mystery, but it was very plain that there was the source of the fire. The blaze soon reached the window curtains and the freshly varnished woodwork, and when discovered by Mrs. Frank Eresley and other passersby, had caused the window glass next to the alley to (all out and smoke and flames were issuing from the window. It was a bad blaze when the fire fighters broxe in upon it, but by the dextrous use of the little chemical devices the blaze was soon out. The wood work was charred", the paper burned off, the desk aad carpet destroyed and the woock partitions burned over. The flames had communicated to the rooms on either side, burning the lace curtains, cracking other windows and damaging the wood work and bed clothin v The damage to the building and furniture is estimated at from SIOO to $l5O, and is covered by insurance. The furniture, including the board partition is the property of Mrs. Rosenbaum, and the building belongs to E. L. Hollingsworth. The building is occupied below by Ferguson & Ferguson’s law of flee and Wood & Rresler’s barbershop and adjoins the State Bank, and would have developed into a serious fire if not discovered in its incipiency.