Printed in the Feb. 7, 1952 Pilot-Tribune, Blair, Nebraska

Ex-Blair Men Die in Fire

Tom and David Brooks Among Five Victims of Omaha Hotel Blaze Sunday

Funeral Services to Be This Afternoon

Two of the five victims of Omaha’s tragic Sunday night hotel fire were identified Monday as sons of a Blair couple.

They were Tom Brooks, 31, and his brother, David Brooks, 22. Their parents are Mr. and Mrs. Albert Brooks, who only recently moved to Blair, and their aunt is Mary Moorhead of this city. The young men are natives and former residents of Blair.

The Brooks brothers worked for an Omaha coal yard, one of them as a truck driver. They met their death when fire roared through the Liberty Apartments on North 15th St. in Omaha Sunday night. Firemen probing the ruins found both their bodies in the same room. In addition to the five killed by the flames, a dozen others were injured, and perhaps 30 to 35 other occupants escaped.

Another brother also was staying at the hotel, residing in a basement apartment, but he escaped without injury.

The bodies have been brought to Blair. Services will be held at the Bendorf Funeral Home at 2 p.m. today (Thursday). The Rev. Ralph Kersey of the Christian Church will officiate, and burial will following Blair Cemetery.

The Brooks brothers are survived, in addition to their parents, by five brothers and four sisters. Neither of them was married.

~~~Obituary courtesy of Washington County Genealogical Association; newspaper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library, Blair, Nebraska ~~~

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