The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-01-06
RISKS LIFE Saving
her SON AT FIRE


discovery of the fire and which was
loud enough to awaken the neiahhor-
hood, is puzzle to Fire Chief Kinder,
although he believes it may have been
caused by gas escaping from the jet
which the older Mrs. Blair tried unsuc-
cessfully to light.
Woman Shows Heroism
In her bed in the hospital this morn
ing the older Mrs. Blair told how the
fire started. She became i'll during the
night and rising from her bed obtained
match. In striking it the head flew
on and started FIRE in the carpet of
her room. She tried to stop the blaze
with her hands and feet which were
terribly burned. When rescued later
her clothing was aiire. She was un-
conscious when the rescuer reached
her.
The younger Mrs. Blair was awak-
ened by the smoke and went from her
own room at the front of the house. in
the second floor, to the rear where the
cracking of the flames could he heard
plainly through the closed door. She
opened the door and went into her
mother-in,law s room but the smoke
drove her away. Going to her son 8
room ON the same floor she wrapped the
boy in blanket and carried him
through the smoke-fned halls to the
front porch. There she met Claud
Lontz, who was just returning from
turning in an alarm from Sixth and
Mahantongo streets. She shouted:
Mother is stin up there
Lontz followed her directions antf
ant 30.
Mrs. Blair had made her way out of
the burning room and along the hall
way to the foot of fight of stairs
leading to the third floor where she
fell, exhausted and overcome by smoke.
Guided by the daughter in law, Lontz z
carried the burned woman to the front
porch. She was revived in the air and
was later carried across the street to
NO. 6l2 by Eugene j. McCurdy, who
resides at that address. From there she
was later taken to the hospital in an
All of the skin had been burned from
Mrs. Blair s hands and feet and she
was painfully scorched about the face
and mead. McCurdy afterward returned
to hight the flames and was himself
slightly injured by falling plaster in the
Blair home.
Explosion Shakes Row
When the firemen responded to the
call the upper floors of the Blair home
were a mass of flames and the other
houses In the row were in grave danger.
Water streams were used immediately
and the Blair home was flooded. Some
OF the heavy furniture on the first floor.
including piano, were saved by neigh
bors. Mr.. Blair, who is a brakeman in
the Harrisburg yards of the Pennsylva-
mia railroad, was at work when the fire
started. His loss. he said this morning.
will reach $1,000.
The principal loss to the adjoining
houses was from the water, which dam
aged the carpets to some extent. The
explosion which knocked plaster from
other houses in the row, bulged the tin
roofs over the row of houses, in some
places as much as two feet. The loss on
the buildings will be more than $1,000
and the contents of the two houses ad-
joining the Blair home, make up the
rest Of the total loss of $4,000.
The members of the family of Charles
Lontz, at Gil Schuylkill street, moved
the furniture from their home to the
front porch during the blaze. They did
not take it back into the house as prep !
arations had been made to remove to
l'32 Wood street tomorrow. When
the fire compelled tine removal of the
furniture the family decided to advance
the moving by one day and this morn
ing the furniture was hauled to the
new address.