Barn Burns, Loss Estimated At $15,000

On July 25, 1930 in the evening hours firemen were sent to the John Varner farm approximately 2 miles east of Shippensburg on the Chambersburg-Carlisle Pike. The cause of the blaze was undetermined but the farmer thought it could have been from internal heating of one of the crops. Lost in the blaze were most of the farm machinery, 1200 bushels of wheat, 600 bushels of oats, a large wagon shed, hog pen, chicken house and automobile shed. The owner and his son had to be rescued from the barn by a neighboring farmer after they became trapped under a horse that collapsed from smoke inhalation while they were evacuating the livestock. Damages were estimated at $15,000. Firemen concentrated on protecting the nearby exposures and obtained their water from a nearby pond and a well on the premises. The Vigilant Hose Company answered the alarm.