New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-07-12
NOTHING ! But JUNK
LEFT T. OF !. MACHINE Al
SOMSEN g. EPPELUND VEELYIS
COMPLETELY DESTROYED
i :: g..
7 BY FIRE.
WITH CARBURETOR
CAUSES EXPLOSION AND
/ STARTS BLAZE.

Noue up Ill SMOKE! lnaCS Wnere the
Epplund and Somsen Veely car has gone
to. Evidently one of the immortal
gods thot it wasn't hot enuf with the
temperature lowering around ninety
degrees and did his best to make it
warmer, for on Monday afternoon when
STAINS Sperl took the Veely out: for test,
she began to back fire with the result
that ere long nothing remained but a
smoking heap of debris. The accident
happened on the Sleepy Eye road about
two miles from New Ulm.
Monday afternoon the car was brot
to Mr.. ESperl by Mr. Somsen, who stated
that she had been popping" while he
was out. STAINS looked the car owe.
and after he had adjusted everything to
his satisfaction, he took the machine
out for; the test. He had driven about
two and one half miles out of town and
was on the return trip. When the other
side Of: the Loretto Hospital the car
buretor; began to backfire and Wishing
to find the trouble Spen Immediately
stopped the car and opened the hood.
At first he could see nothing and after
opening the earburetor so that it would
let out gas it again backfred but this
time the sparks found leak in the
emergency gas tank. Immediately a
big blaze was raging and as he had
nothing with which to extinguish it he
began to pile sand on it. Seeing that
his efforts were fruitless he tried to get
under the car SO as to shut the gasoline
tank but he had just put his head un der
whea there was another loud report and
s5ki'esnfe broke OUT under the car :, s,
III s,:t ~ - -. ~ ~: $H:!e
! Clarence Gieseke who happened to be
driving by, was Immediately sent y to
town for aid, He reported the accident
to Mr.. .Somsen who sent Roy Berg out
with pyrene fire extinguishers. When
Roy arrived the sight that greeted his
eyes was appalling. Imagine car
standing in: the road, ablaze from top to
bottom. The extinguishers We're put
into action and the control of the fire
was apparently we'll under way. After
emptying one of the pyrenes it looked
J as,if the fire was out but as soon as the
administering of the chemical was
stopped the blaze broke out anew. The
other chemical was also brought into
action and again after it was used and
the fire seemed to be out, it broke out
afresh. And then, the chemicals being
exhausted there was nothing to do but
watch it burn.
Sperl when interviewed said that he
had concluded that the cause of the fire
breaking out again was that the glass on
the carburetor had been broken BY a
small stone which may have been among
the gravel which he threw on at first to
put the fire out
Nothing rema aimed of the fittings Of the
car and everything that would burn was
consumed with the exception of the tires
which the men succeeded in removing
Three of them are practically as good
as they were before the fire and the
TO urth is scorched in few spots.
Mr.. Sperl seems cut up about the
accident as this was the first car he has
lost by fire altho he has had several
occasions where fire broke out while he
was driving: He always succeeded in
smothering the fire with sand and if the
glass over the carburetor had not broken
he might have saved the machine this
time.
L The car was a 1914 model and cost
$500 when new The owners carried
insurance on it.