Bio: Szewczyk, E.H. (House Explosion – 1972)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Szewczyk

---------Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 05 Oct 1972

An explosion and fire levelled the five-room, two story home on the E.H. Szewczyk farm located six and one-half miles northwest of Withee (Clark Co., Wis.), in the town of Hixon, and on the bank of the Black River.

It is a wonder no one was injured, as the mishap occurred about noon Wednesday. The home was occupied by the elder Szewczyks and a son Henry. The mother was in the house and smelled what she thought to be a gas leak. She left the house, going to the field where her husband was picking mushrooms, and Henry and a friends were picking rocks. The mother told Henry to check the house, as she smelled gas, and that the bull had jumped out of his pen in the barn. Enroute from the field to the house, Henry stopped first at the barn and got the bull back in his pen. Then as he opened the barn door and headed toward the house, some 150 feet away, there was a violet explosion that about rocked him off his feet, and then fire. He didn't know who did sound the fire alarm, alerting the Owen Community Fire Department at 12:08, as he went to two nearby neighbors and both of their phones were dead.