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FIRE – HARRY RICE’S HOUSE BURNED
[People’s Press, 29 May 1900]
The old Rice homestead in Thorold township about two miles from Welland, was completely destroyed by fire on Friday morning. The building was one of those old-fashioned, rambling ones, built in three sections, the oldest of which was occupied by the grandfather of the present owner ninety years ago. The old homestead had been the dwelling place of four generations of the Rice family, and owing to these cherished remembrances Mr. Rice feels keenly the loss in its destruction. It was one of those staunch buildings, as were put up in days gone by, with heavy oak timbers, and lines throughout with brick inside the weather boards. Two of the sections were frame outside, the dimensions of each being 18×24; there was a brick kitchen in the rear of these, and in the rear of the kitchen was a big woodshed and the ice house-the whole is now a mass of ruins, nothing standing except part of the brick walls of the kitchen. The cause of the fire can only be assumed-the kitchen chimney had burned out just before the family sat down to breakfast, but all danger from this was thought to be over and Mr. Rice and his help had gone into the fields for the day’s work. About eight o’clock, Mr. Rice, happening to glance in the direction of the house, saw smoke rising above the trees; he hurried over, but on reaching the upstairs found the roof so far gone that fire was falling through into the room. To check the fire being out of the question, all efforts were directed toward saving the contents. Very little was got out from the upper storey, but with the help of twenty or more men who had reached the scene in the meantime a great quantity of the contents of the lower section were removed safely, bot notwithstanding this the loss on contents alone will be very heavy. There was a small insurance of $275 on the house and also a policy on the contents, but these cover a very small portion of the actual loss. Although the house was only some fifty feet from the barns, the wind fortunately was very light and from the right direction to blow the fire the other way.
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