WARNING SENT TO JASONVILLE PROVED FUTILE.

TOWN WAS NOT PREPARED WHEN A BIG FIRE BROKE OUT FRIDAY.

SUFFERED A HEAVY LOSS.

DESTROYED SIX BUSINESS AND TWO RESIDENCE BLOCKS AND CLAIMED ONE LIFE.

Jasonville, Ind., July 25. -- A warning sent last summer when a disastrous fire wrought havoc here, failed to cause sufficient precaution to be taken this year, and yesterday afternoon Jasonville paid the penalty, six business blocks and two resident blocks being wiped out in a conflagration which burned nearly fifty stores, did damage estimated at $300,000 and claimed one life. JOHN HUGHES, fifty years old, a teamster, was caught by falling walls, after a dynamite explosion, and was so badly burned and crushed that he died. He leaves four children.
The fire is thought to have started in the Family theater, but was first discovered in the JOSEPH SPURGEON grocery. The flames were first seen in the SPURGEON building on the south side of Main street. The blaze spread rapidly east and west from the SPURGEON store and soon leaped across the street. Dynamite was used in a vain attempt to stop the flames. The fire ate its way west to the I. O. O. F. building on the north side of the street and the BURKHART building on the south. Here a cross street aided the firemen, who by using dynamite, halted the blaze. A distress call had been sent to Terre Haute and apparatus arrived from that city.
Jasonville has been supplied with water by a corporation, which used deep wells for its supply. When the flames broke out the firemen brought their hose into play, but only for a few minutes, as the water soon gave out.
While the fire was burning a hayfield west of the city caught fire and forced several families to move out their goods.
Hundreds of persons flocked to this city from Sullivan, Linton, Hymers and surrounding points. It is estimated that less than half of the $300,000 loss is covered by insurance.

Kokomo Tribune Indiana 1914-07-25
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!