Iowa Old Press

LeMars Semi Weekly
Tuesday April 8, 1924

NIGHT FIREMAN BADLY SCALDED

Alex Roberts Is Painfully Injured When Boiler Flue Bursts

HALF DAZED BY SHOCK

Blinded with Pain Makes Way to Nearby Home

Alex Roberts, a fireman employed at the Iowa Light, Heat and Power Co., was
seriously injured Friday night and is now in a local hospital recovering
from his wounds. At first it was thought his injuries were fatal, but
physicians in attendance say he will recover. The accident in which he was
hurt occurred about a quarter to eleven, Friday night, when he was at his
work firing (?) in the boiler room and a flue suddenly burst. Mr. Roberts
was in the act of scooping up a shovel full of coal when the explosion
occurred, and he was enveloped in a cloud of steam, scalding water, and
flying debris.

The force of the hissing vapor threw hot cinders and live coal from the fire
box over him scalding his face, chest, and legs.

Half dazed with the shock and pain and thinking that the other men engaged
at work in the engine and boiler rooms were badly injured, or, perhaps,
killed, Roberts made his way to the residence of P.J. Simeon, where his
appearance with coal black face, hair standing on end, hatless, coatless,
breathless, and writhing with pain from the burns, startled the family and
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Calhoun, who were spending the evening there. Roberts told
the Simeon family he thought the other men had been hurt or killed.

Mr. Simeon and Mr. Calhoun hastily summoned a doctor to attend to the
injured man who was conveyed to the Community Hospital, and then preceded to
the power plant as quickly as possible.

Harry Landgraf employed at the plant, was at the door of the fireroom when
the explosion took place and was thrown several feet landing out of harm's
way. The engineer at the plant, Hans Hansen, had just stepped upstairs a
minute or two before the flue blew out.

Hansen on going to the boiler room was confronted with a flood of scalding
water over the floor and hot steam still belching forth. He and Landraf were
under the impression for several minutes that Roberts had been caught in the
explosion and that he was lying lifeless behind the boilers and their
feelings were relieved when Simeon and Calhoun appeared on the scene to
render any assistance they could.

Alex Roberts was seen at the hospital yesterday. He is badly burned about
the face, hands, chest, and legs, but his condition is much better than was
expected and he has shown remarkable recuperative power and nerve since the
accident, and is progressing favorably.

Mr. Roberts said the explosion occurred so suddenly that he could scarcely
tell what happened. He said something hit him on the back of the head and he
was spun around facing the escaping steam and hot cinders. His first thought
was that the explosion had wrecked the plant and killed his fellow workmen,
and he started out instinctively to secure help and hardly realizes how he
got out of the boiler room.

[Note: Alex survived the accident/explosion but remained hospitalized until
his death from the results from the injuries. Over a period of time, it
affected him not only physically but mentally and he died in the Cherokee
State Hospital on July 27, 1926 - more than two years after the accident.]

LeMars Sentinel newspaper
Dated Friday, April 25, 1924

OLD RESIDENT DIES
Was Member of Pioneer Family of Johnson Township

Mrs. Kate Jeffers, one of the pioneers of this county, died at her home in
Akron, Monday, aged 82 years. She came to Plymouth county in the seventies
being a member of the Fuller family. Her first husband's name was William
Blanchard, who served in the Civil war and was later recorder of Delaware
county. Following his death she came to Plymouth county and her brother,
Frank Fuller, took up homesteads in Johnson township. Frank Fuller was
sheriff of this county in the eighties.

April 29, 1872, she was united in marriage with Isaac Jeffers in this
county. He was a homesteader in Johnson township. She leaves two sons, Orson
and Frank, of Akron vicinity, and a daughter, Mrs. Ervin (sic--Irvin) Boyer,
of Meade county, South Dakota, and a stepson, William Jeffers, now in New
Mexico.

Mrs. Jeffers was well known to all the older residents of the county and was
highly esteemed in the community.

The funeral will be held this afternoon at the home in Akron, and services
held at the Baptist church, and the remains interred in the family burying
ground at Crathorne, eight miles west of LeMars.

MANY IN ATTENDANCE
Methodist Women Holding Missionary Convention

The annual convention of this district Women's Foreign Missionary society
convened at the First Methodist church in this city yesterday.  A large
number of delegates are in attendance.  The sessions will continue today,
adjourning this evening.  The program as published in Tuesday's Sentinel is
being carried out.