BLAZE

PRINDLE, ROUSH, ECKERLEBE, RANKIN, HARRINGTON

Posted By: DJ Miles (email)
Date: 10/30/2012 at 17:32:04

The Jackson Sentinel, Maquoketa, Jackson, IA Mar. 18, 1955
BLAZE—
“The firm was getting to move to a new location next week. Mr. Harrington said Thursday his business is being conducted as usual at the new location, 115 East Platt Street, in the building recently vacated by Bowman TV and Appliance Store.
LeRoy Prindle, one of the occupants of the upstairs apartment, said he discovered the fire about 7:30 p.m. “I smelled smoke and went out the back door onto the porch. I looked downstairs and I could see through the back door that something was burning inside on the ground floor.” Prindle, his wife and four children, and the Marvin Roush family reached the street without casualities. Assistant Fire Chief Kenneth Rankin, one of the first to arrive on the scene following the alarm, escorted Roush’s mother, Mrs. Ada Roush, and Fred Eckerlebe, the other upstairs tenants to safety. He reported the upstairs “so thick with smoke you could cut it with an axe” when he arrived.”