Bio: Jalowitz, Al – Barn Fire (Nov 1975)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Jalowitz, Johnson, List, Ovyn, Gehrke

---------Source: Owen Enterprise (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 03 Dec 1975

A fire of an undetermined loss occurred at 5:45 p.m. Monday at the Al Jalowitz farm in the Town of Hixon (Clark Co., Wis.), which took members of the fire department 10 hours to bring under control.

The fire started in the milk house, apparently from a hot water heater, and spread to the hay mow, where it smoldered. Foremen had to remove more than half of the 7,00 bales of hay and chopped straw from the mow in their effort to control and save the modern 36x100 foot structure.

Al Jalowitz, who is Owen's acting Chief of Police, notice the fire himself while in the barn preparing to milk the cattle. He suffered a severe burn to his right hand and was treated at the office of Dr. J.W. Johnson, Withee. He also sustained an injury to his ankle when knocked off the top of the milk house by a fire hose.

The barn housed 55 head of milk cattle, all of which were saved. Neighboring farmers quickly responded to the tragedy, with Don List taking the cows from the field in which they were run when the fire started, to his farm and milked them that evening. Later, other area farmers each took a few head to their barns to be quarter for the night and milked Tuesday morning. Late Tuesday afternoon the cattle were returned from the various farms to the barn, which is still useable, as damage, for the most part,, was limited to the mow. About half of the interior of thee mow is badly gutted out.

The firemen worked at the scene until 3:30 a.m. Tuesday removing the hay and straw from the barn. Dennis Ovyn moved onto the scene with his bulldozer and assisted firemen by shoving the hay and straw from the floor of the barn to the outside. Tom Gehrke, a member of the fire company, returned to his store and supplied volunteers with pitchforks for assist in the removal of the mow contents, while the firemen's wives appeared on the scene at the late hours with food.

Firemen left the scene at 3:30 a.m., but were recalled two hours later when there was evidence of fire in the stack of straw and hay that had been thrown from the barn. They then remained at the farm until 7.30 a.m.

As of this time there is no qualified estimate of the loss incurred by Mr. Jalowitz.