Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 111, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1909 — BOY LOST LIFE IN BURNING BARN. [ARTICLE]

BOY LOST LIFE IN BURNING BARN.

Little Omer Smith Unable To Get Out of Father’s Barn, Which He Probably Set On Fire. One of {he saddest things that ever happened in Rensselaer was the death of little Omer Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Smith, which took place in a burning barn on Mr. Smith’s residence lot in the northeast part of Rensselaer Thursday afternoon. The little boy was 7 years of age last spring and had entered school for the first time at the beginning of the school year. The saddest part of the accident is the fact that after the boy was reported to be missing some one reported that he had been seen after the fire had started and no further alarm was felt and the fire company being unable to save the barn, part of them came away without throwing any water on it. Later, howfever, after the fire engine had gone, the charred remains of th& little form were found not far from the barn door, his escape having probably been cut off by burning hay. Mr. Smith was working at cement construction at the James Amsler farm and Mrs. Smith had gone to the home of her brother, Orson Lewis, about two blocks from her home. It is thought that Omer came home from school and took matches to the barn and in his play set fire to the hay, of which there was a considerable quantity in the building, filling the mow and extending down into the barn. So positive are two or three persons that the little boy was seen running down the street crying for his mother just a few minutes before the barn was discovered on. fire, that it is thought he may have gone back to the barn after the fire started and tried in his feeble way to put it out. It was the report that he had been seen that caused a general understanding that he had been found after the first report of his unexplained absence. While the fire was burning Marshal Parks, taking the report that he had been seen running down the street as a clue, searched extensively for him, and went to the homes of several relatives to inquire if he had been seen. The fire had a big start before discovered, and being almost a mile from the engine house and some delay being occasioned after the alarm was received, owing to the absence of |he fire team, the barn had fallen before tne department reached the scene. The barn was of fair size but tolerably old and very dry and, of course, it did not take long for it to be consumed when the hay within it ignited, ignited. The nearest water hydrant was too far away to be used, and the chemical engines and water buckets were used in preventing a spread of the fire, and after Assistant Fire Chief Rhoades, who had charge of the department in the absence of Chief Montgomery, had satisfied himself that the surrounding buildings were safe, he returned to the engine house with the engine, which had been taken out to the fire with Everet Warne’s dray team. As the flames were dying away and the boy could not be found renewed concern was felt and finally Frank Turner saw what proved to be the charred body not <ar from the outside doorway. The form was raked from the hot embers and tenderly held by four men while Marshal Parks procured a sheet with which to cover it, and he then carried It to the Wright undertaking rooms. According to one of the spectators it was apparent that the little fellow had made an effort to escape and had fallen when within a few feet of the door, with his arms folded about his face In an effort to protect it from the flames. Mr. Smith did not know anything of the fire until his return from the country and his grief and that of his wife can well be imagined when they were informed of the sad fate of their little son.