The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1916-12-21
AS SEEN FROM AFFAIR
MARSHALLToWN AND oTTUMWA
PAPERS ON OUR FIRE.

when Oskaloosa and Creston had
disastrous fires. Given a cold snap
and conditions favorable to confla-
grations and somebody's red hot
stove or furnace with bad connec-
lions does the rest.
The oskaloosa fire started in a
frame livery stable which located as
it was became a torch to touch off
half block in the business section of
the town and send property estimat-
ed at $1500C0 up in smoke. Nobody
seems to know how the Creston
blaze began but ii started in the
middle OF the business section and
wiped out hotels and business
houses estimated as worth 100000
or more.
To permit an old frame building to
stand in the midst Of brick blocks
surrounded by valuable stocks is as
sensible as going to bed and leaving
the cat and a lighted lamp together
in the kitchen. A frame building
occupied as livery barn with its
infiammable mows of hay and straw,
it's ancient stoves and careless help
is about as safe in business section
as powder house. 1t is safe to
predict that the livery that replaces
the one that touched off Oskaloosa
will not be frame building.
Creston's big fire probably started
through carelessness, not necessarily
carelessness in starting the flame,
but from carelessness that neglected
smoke pipe connections, that per-
mitted all manner of inflammable de-
bris to accumulate in easements and
perhaps in alleys and at back en-
frances. When the mercury drops
and the heating apparatus glows I'M
der such circumstances the town is
ready for big Arc loss as though II
had been deliberately prepared for.
Oskaloosa and Creston may be
taken as warnings byAother towns to
clean up fire traps. There will be
more cold snaps with overheated
fiues and red hot stoves in livery
barns and in Easements. 1t is also
Christmas time when the rush OF un.
packing inclines to carelessness and
improper disposal of excelsior and
other infIammable packing materi-
ais. But remember what happened
at Creston and Oskaloosa.
- - -
Ottumwa Courier: The Ottumwa
flremen, and especially those men
who made the remarkable trip to Os-
kaloosa FRIDAY morning, are deserv-
ing of eommendation. They show
ed a high standard of efficiency I'M
Q usual endurance, and unselfishness
which marks them as worthy of the
faith which the citizens repose in
them when it hires them to serve
as protectors against fire.
Oskaloosa's Cry for help reached
Ottumwa at $40 o'clock Friday
morning. A big fire was raging in
Oskaloosa and there was danger that
a large part of the city might be
swept away. The assistance of
skilled firemen and more apparatus
was needed and at once, as the
blaze had already been raging sew
eral hours and was spreading rap
idly. Ottumwa and Grinnell were
notifide and asked if they could come
TO the rescue. Thirty miles of dirt
road stretched out between the
blaze and the slumbering Ottumwa
firemen.
Chief Sloan and his men did not
hesitate minute after the plea for
help came. They forgot that the
thermometer was hanging around the
; zero mark and that stainging gale
was blowing. They overlooked the
hardship of a dash of thirty miles
under such conditions and were not
alarmed at the prospect of even
greater hardships after enduring the
first. They waited only long enough
to get into the warmest clothing
available and to fill the gasoline and
oil tanks on the fire truck and then
they were off. The chief shared the
front seat with Driver Robert Frost
while Ben Edwards and Harry ALI
son took advantage of the little shell
ter the seat and chemical tank af-
forded.
The road was in excellent shape
and the powerful truck literally
burned it up. The thirty miles were
covered in less than an hour, which
means that at times the big truck
was travelling at the rate of nearly
fifty miles an hour.
The Ottumwa flremen were on the
job the minute they reached the
scene of the fire. Their 1900 feet OF
hose enabled them to lay two lines
and these soon had an effect upon
the fire. An hour and half after
the arrival OF The Cttumwa rescuers,
the fire wSs pronounced under con-
troll For another two hours, the
four men stayed on the job and they
did not leave it until it was a GER
tainty that the Oskaloosa men could
handle it.
Naturally the Oskaloosa authori-
ties and townspeople We're demon
strative in thanking the Ottumwa
firemen. An effort was made to re-
VIC rd1 than, with a cnhctantiaI c,t,,,