Damage was estimated at $25,000 Tuesday in a fire at 8:30 pm Tuesday in a fire Saturday which destroyed a garage at the Frick Funeral Home. A Packard ambulance, a hearse, a combination Chrysler ambulance and a seven passenger sedan and 30 caskets stored in the garage were destroyed.

The funeral home itself was not damaged although the wall of a rear storage room was scorched by the heat. The homes of Howard Frick south of the garage and Mrs. Margie Edwards west of the burning building caught fire but were saved from any serious damage.

The frame garage was located west of the funeral home and stood so close to the other buildings in the vicinity that it appeared for a time that their destruction was inevitable. The blaze had gained considerable headway before it was discovered and the building was enveloped in flames when firemen reached the scene. The heat was so intense that the funeral home staff could not enter the building to rescue the vehicles stored there.

The staff and more than a score of persons in the funeral home were unaware of the fire until a passerby summoned G.J. Frick and told him the garage was burning. Persons in the funeral home at the time included friends and relatives of two deceased persons whose bodies lay in state in the chapel.

Frick and his staff quietly advised the crowd of the fire and asked them to leave the building as a precaution. The crowd filed out without panic. Preparations were made to remove the two caskets from the chapel if necessary but as firemen got the blaze under control, the caskets were permitted to remain.

The funeral home staff was enthusiastic in praise of the work done by firemen in preventing spread of the flames. The fire in no way disrupted the service of the funeral home. Other motor equipment was placed in readiness at once to take care of any emergency.

(Extracted  from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )