WOMEN LAUGH AS HOME IS BURNING.
Think Boys Shouting Fire Are Playing April Fool Joke.
When boys shouted "fire" in front of the Tuksbre rooming house, 709-11 Oak street, at 8:30 o'clock last night a half dozen women singing and talking in the lower front rooms thought immediately of April fool pranks.
"Those boys are having a good joke on somebody," said Mrs. Estellah Montgomery, who had moved into an upstairs room just two hours before. But Mrs. A. J. Tuksbre, who conducts the rooming house, had experienced a fire scare a week ago and she was willing to risk being the victim of a joke. As she opened the front door the flames from the porch burst in toward her and smoke filled the hall.
Mrs. Tuksbre grabbed a bunch of keys fitting various rooms, spread the alarm and called the fire department. Others in the house scurried for safety in the street -- all but Beulah Webb, 19 years old, an employe of the Swift Packing Company. She was asleep in an rear upstairs room.
When No. 25 hose company arrived the fire had enveloped the entire front of the house and spread into the basement. Smoke was penetrating every room.
Awakened by the noise and smoke from the sleeping girl was almost panic-stricken when Gerald Davis, a fireman, appeared at a window of her foom and carried her down a ladder on his shoulder. She was uninjured except for inhaling smoke.
At the same time John Barger, a fireman of No. 5 hose company, was dislodged from a ladder at the front of the house and his back was injured. He was taken to the General hospital. His injuries are not serious.
Mr. and Mrs. Neal Ring and Mrs. Ring's daugher, Gladys, 20 years old, had rooms upstairs. They escaped from the rear of the house.
A new gas light had been placed near the ceiling of the front porch a week ago. The fire was first seen near this light.
The damage caused by the fire is estimated at $900.
