Where can i go to find out about a family fire that happened in 1924?

Question

it happened in fort wayne indiana..the family name was dunlap..3 children died in the fire and one died the next day in the hospital.it happened on december 15 1924.

Answer 1

I think you will have to give some more clues if you want some answers, like where abouts it happened and was anyone killed ect?

Answer 2

Use the internet

Answer 3

The best place to start is the local paper, which may be archived at your local library. The fact you know the date will make finding information a lot easier.

After finding the precise details from the newspaper, you might also want to buy death certificates for the children, and the article may also lead you down other avenues.

Answer 4

Like Faithless said above, if you can provide a name, date and country (and city or state if possible).  Someone with an ancestry.com membership will search the  newpaper archives.  Or you could try to find a free newspaper index (there are a few).  Try cindislist.com

http://www.cyndislist.com/newspapr.htm

Answer 5

Contact the local paper from area via email. They usually have archives or volunteers that can look it up. Also, you can contact the library there. They are usually pretty helpful.

Answer 6

***WARNING---there are some graphic parts to the following news story.***** It is incredibly tragic.

The following appeared in the Indianapolis Star on December 16, 1924   Front Page , Top of Column 6

THREE CHILDREN PERISH; TRAPPED IN BURNING HOME

Another May Die Following Tragedy When Mother Goes to Friends, Leaving Tots Alone

NEIGHBORS RUSH TO AID

Only One  Child Escapes When Flames Quickly Destroy Building

[Special to the Indianapolis Star]

FORT WAYNE Ind Dec 15- Three small children are dead and another is in a local hospital at the point of death as a result of a fire which destroyed the home Glen Dunlap four miles south of Fort Wayne this morning.   The home was burned to the ground.

The dead are

Von Glen Dunlap  4 years old

Vera Aline Dunlap 3

Norman Dunlap seven months old.

June Dunlap, 2 years old was badly burned about the face and body. Lutheran Hospital attaches report her condition critical late today.

The children were left alone in the house when their mother went to the home of a neighbor, Leon Draemer, for milk.  One of the children poking the stove, scattered live coals about the floor and the carpet burst into flames.  The fire spread rapidly.

Five Trapped in House

Russel Foughty of Garrett,  who with two other men were passing the house in an auto truck, discovered the fire and rushed to the aid of the children.

There were five children in the house when the fire started.  One of them, Bud Dunlap, rushed from the burning house but the others did not escape.  

The body of one of the children was removed from a window of the blazing home.  Fanned by a high wind, the flames quickly consumed the home, a two room frame, unplastered structure.  It burned to the ground.  The mother is prostrated.

Father Was At Work

The father who is employed by a Fort Wayne coal company was at work in this city at the time of the fire. All three of the children were badly burned, their legs being burned off and faces being burned beyond recognition.  Besides the three children who are dead and the one in the hospital and the one who escaped, there is a six year old girl, Doris who was at school.

When neighbors arrived  the flames had gained such headway that to make any effort to save the house was futile. For this reason, the Fort Wayne fire department was not summoned.

One of the neighbors reached into a window of the burning house and pulled one of the children out.   The child was dead, its face and upper part of the  little body being horribly burned.

The following appeared the next day

FIRE DEATH TOLL MOUNTS TO FOUR

FORT WAYNE, Ind. Dec 16-  The death toll in the fire which destroyed the home of Glen Dunlap near here mounted to four today, when June Dunlap, 2 years old died in a local hospital from effects of burns suffered in the blaze that claimed the lives of her two brothers and a sister.

Funeral services for the three who perished were held today, the little charred bodies laid to rest in one casket. The services were private.  Charitable agencies today began a drive to obtain funds and aid for the stricken family.  It is planned to raise enough money to rebuild the home and  give the family a new start.

The father is employed as a laborer in a local coal yard. One boy, Bud, 5 years old escaped from the burning home, and a girl of 6 was in school.