Looking back: Boy gets head caught between car door, curb and woman charged with second-degree arson
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of July 18 to July 24 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
MENAN — The “most terrific electrical storm ever witnessed in Menan” happened on July 21, 1913, according to the Sugar City Times.
The paper said lightning struck a large barn belonging to David Sessions at about 3 p.m. Within three minutes the barn and all its contents were “ablaze.”
“The good people here were not able to save any part of the barn,” the article states. “The barn was one of the finest in this section of the state, being equipped with cement stalls and floors and all other modern improvements for that class of buildings.”
The barn had roughly 12 tons of hay, harnesses and vehicles. A young man was in the barn at the time the lightning struck and was “knocked down, but soon was on his feet again.” He helped get three horses that were in the barn out “in time to save their lives.”
1926-1950
CHESTER — Two St. Anthony women walked away uninjured after crashing into a truck stopped on U.S. Highway 91.
The Idaho Falls Post Register said on July 23, 1948, the truck stopped 1.5 miles east of Chester because of a burning engine.
“The truck, driven by Edward C. Barnett, Rexburg, was forced to stop when smoke from the burning engine obscured the driver’s vision,” reports explained.
The sedan, driven by Margaret Birch with Colleen Turner in the passenger seat, couldn’t stop in time and hit the rear of the truck. The sedan suffered $500 in damage, but the truck was not damaged.
1951-1975
ST. ANTHONY — A four-year-old boy received 30 stitches on his scalp after getting his head “caught between the door of a moving car and the curb,” the Idaho State Journal said.
The article, dated July 20, 1956, said the victim was James Dennis Adams, and the accident happened in front of his home.
“A witness … said the boy and his father, Wayne, had got into the car about 7:45 p.m. and the car started to roll when the father returned to the house,” the local paper wrote. “The lad tumbled from the right side of the car, and his head apparently lodged between the open door and the curb.”
The witness stopped the car and the boy’s father rushed his son to the hospital. The paper said he was reported to be in “fairly good condition” the day after the accident.
1976-2000
POCATELLO — A 28-year-old Pocatello woman was arrested for second-degree arson, the Idaho State Journal wrote on July 18, 1976.
The arrest was made in connection with a fire on June 22, 1976, at the old Paramount Cleaners, according to police.
The fire destroyed $50,000 to $60,000 worth of flood-damaged clothing from a Rexburg store. The clothing had been stored in the building after the Teton Dam Flood.