Man, 92, Died In Fire Here

A 92-year-old man is dead. Death was caused mostly by suffocation and shock in a fire a the home where he lived at 1030 State Street, shortly after 12 o’clock noon Thursday.

Dead is Harry A. Jones who has made his home for several years with his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Orr.

Mr. Orr gave the following account to the Blair Newspapers.

David Kohler, 13 years of age, a seventh grade pupil at Central School and son of Mrs. Orr, was the first to discover the fire.

When David arrived home at noon and opened the front door, smoke poured out. At almost the same time Mr. Orr arrived home. David ran to him and cried, “Hurry, there’s a fire!”

Mr. Orr stated that the smoke was so intense that he could not enter the house. He managed to open some windows and got a couple of fans started.

In the meantime neighbors noted the smoke and called the Fire Department. When firemen arrived, members of the department wearing smoke masks, entered and carried Mr. Jones out of the building. He was rushed to Memorial Community Hospital by the Rescue Squad, but was dead on arrival. Dr. L. I. Grace, attending physician, stated death was caused by shock and suffocation. It is not known how long the fire had been smoldering.

Mr. Orr stated that his father-in-law had been confined to a wheel chair for the past 20 years.

He said that Mr. Jones smoked and he theorized that possibly the aged man had struck a match which set a curtain on fire in the room where he was sitting. The fire was confined to the one room, in the northwest part of the home.

The curtain over the window, next to the wheel chair, was burned. The woodwork around the window was partly burned, as was the floor directly under the window.

The rest of the room and the house was not burned, but there was smoke damage.

Mr. Orr stated that the fire was apparently just getting under way when discovered.

Mr. Jones was born in Iowa, June 26,1872. Survivors, besides the Blairites, include two sisters in Omaha.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, 2:00 p.m. at the Campbell Mortuary with interment at Bellevue, Nebraska. The Rev. Clare Olney of the Congregational Church will conduct the service.

Note: Since the actual death date was not given, the news article date was used.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~