Fire and Ice

I don't know exactly what one should expect to find in a barn belonging to the Barnes Ice Co. Me, I'd expect to find ice. I'd be mistaken, apparently, either because no ice was put up during the winter of 1920-21, or because by September 1921 the ice was all used up anyway, or because this was the barn, not the ice house. For whatever reason, when it caught fire, there was no ice inside to melt and put the fire out.*


(Click on image to enlarge)
"Local and Personal." Hobart News 22 Sept. 1922.

According to the Gazette, Fred Rose, Jr. first noticed the fire as he was standing at Main and Third around 8:00 that evening. He gave the alarm and ran to get his dad's fire truck, and with several other members of the fire department who happened to be nearby, rushed to the scene … but to no avail.

I wonder if this is the fire referenced in the 1979 article of downtown Hobart memories.


In other news, Bertha Bodamer's social life continues active and reported.

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*I know, I know — fire goes up, meltwater goes down.


Additional Source: "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 23 Sept. 1921.