Brooder Fire Wipes Out Local Poultry Farm
A pre-dawn blaze sparked by a lamp cost a local farmer his chicken house, tools, and over a hundred baby chicks.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Fire last Sunday morning destroyed the J. C. Matterson chicken house. In addition to the chicken house, Mr. Matterson lost 100 baby chicks received a few days previous from Prosser, nearly all of the rest of his poultry, and some farm tools. It is thought that the fire was caused by the exploding of a lamp in one of the brooders. Mr. Matterson had gone to the chicken house about 4 o'clock in the morning to see that everything was alright, and about a half hour after returning to the house he was awakened by the fire. He was unable to save anything except a wood pile that was stored near the chicken house. He estimates his loss at about $175.
“He was unable to save anything except a wood pile that was stored near the chicken house.”
Fires caused by heating lamps in agricultural outbuildings remain a common and devastating hazard for small-scale farmers today. While the scale of loss here seems modest, for a rural household in 1924, losing an entire season's stock and infrastructure was a significant economic blow.
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