Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-09-18
% FINE HORSES BURN
VIM. Post & Sons Barn Burns to
The Ground.
ONLY THREE HORSES SAVED.
Barn Catches Afire Early Saturday
Morning and Burns Rapidly
Loss $4,000 With $4,000
Insurance.

INSURANCE.
The hottest fire in Decorah in sew
eral years burned the Main street
horse barn or VIM. Post & Son of
East Williston, Long Island, to the
ground at an early hour Saturday
morning, together with twenty-four
of the twenty-seven fine draft horses
that were housed there waiting ship
ment to New York. The local busi-
ness of the firm is conducted by
Messrs. Andrew and Erick Ander-
son, who have been buying and ship
ping large numbers of horses for the
firm for several years, the business
running as high as 100000 per
year.
The fire was discovered about $3.50
O'Clock Saturday morning by c. o.
Hagen, the tailor, who was at work
| in his shop and the alarm given.
Will Sheggerud, who was working
for the Andersons was sleeping on
the hay in the NOW, and he got out
by jumping through the window onto
load of hay which stood below it.
Claus Espeseth, who slept in the bed
room near the ONCE, was awakened
by the outsiders.
Calls of fire" were heard for
quite a long time before the fire
bells rang, and by the time the few
firemen who could hear them got
there the barn was a mass of flames,
extending into the air fifty feet or
three and four blocks away, lighting
up the roofs of adjacent buildings.
Were it not for the rain of a few
hours before which wet the roofs,
several of them would undoubtedly
have caught fire.
In the big barn were twenty-five
fine draft horses and big span of
mules, purchased by Anderson Bros.
for shipment to VIM. Post & Son of
East Willtston, Long Island, for
resale. They were an unusually
fine lot of horses, and their value
would average about $250.00 each.
Only one of these horses and the
mules were gotten out, when the
fire became so hot that it was i'm
possible to- do anything more. The
noises made by the horses in the
agonies of suffering and death were
heart-rending, yet it was impossible
to do anything for them, and they
perished in their stalls, twenty-four
of as fine animals as ever were
housed together in Decorah, some of
them show horses weighing over
1000 pounds each.
The sight of the charred remains
of the twenty-four horses the next
morning was hideous one, and a
large force of men worked faithfully
to haul them away as quickly as pos
sible. They were buried in the city
dumping ground near Trout Run.
The barn burned to the ground.
The firemen fought bravely, and soon
after they got the water turned on,
it was evident that danger of it
spreading was past. 1t is now a
mass of charred ruins, entirely de-
stroyed. The loss is at least $4,000,
with $3.50 insurance, $4,000 on the
barn and $2.50o on the horses. Ii
is expected that the barn will be re-
built of brick or concrete, and the
business continued by the Anderson
Bros. for Post & Son, who have been
buying large numbers of horses here
for good many years past.
For time it was thought i'm
possible to save the livery barn of
Henry Kornmeyer, which Joined the
building on the east. but it being of
brick, the fire was confined to the
wooden structure about it, Mr.. Korn-
meyers only loss being lumber
wagon in the yard. He got all the
horses and vehicles out of his barn,
but the fire did not get into it,
Again the inefficiency OF the fire
alarm system was demonstrated in
this fire. The newspapers have time
and again urged that an adequate
alarm be provided, but the council
seems negligent in the matter. The
bell at the city hall is OF little value,
and the one at Hose House No. :
none at all. The latter has been
cracked for months, and can hardly
be heard block away. What is the
use OF having such splendid equip
ment, and a department OF such stall
wart fire fighters If they can't be
gotten TO a fire in time to be or serv-
ice. Several methods of providing
alarms at very slight cost have been
suggested, but nothing is done about
the matter. The city council owes
it to the city to see that an alarm
which can be heard throughout the
city is provided before cold weather
sets in.