An exploding stove in the office at Thurmond–Hay Oldsmobile sales room at 7:30 Saturday morning caused a fire that threatened the destruction of the entire garage before it was brought under control with damage to only four cars. The stove exploded shortly after R.H. Sizemore, garage workman had opened the garage and had built a fire in the stove.

Sizemore had put some coal in the stove and was in the rear workroom of the garage when he discovered that the sales room was filled with smoke. He was unable, because of the smoke and fumes to get into the sales room but he reached a telephone and called the fire dept. When the firemen arrived, the heavy black smoke from the fire in the rear of the room was belching forth from the front of the building.

The intense heat had broken the glass front of the building, firemen had to crawl on the floor to advance the hose and avoid the thick blankets of smoke that barred their entrance. The blaze was brought under control in a few minutes but the smoke continued to emerge from the building for some time.

The paint of two new cars and two others nearby were ruined by the smoke and the glass tops of all four cars will have to be replaced. Some of the tires were ruined. A number of used cars stored in the building were slightly damaged. The fire caught the overhead timbers supporting the roof of the sales room and these timbers as well as the roof boards were charred somewhat, although the fire did not break through the roof.

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