Pages Past - July 22

On this date ...

1950: Firefighters had to drive through “water up to their running boards” and stand in “mud up to their ankles” to fight a hay fire in a torrential rain storm.

Lightning caused the fire on F.L. Corder’s Roosevelt County farm near the Bethel community, the Portales Daily News reported.

“Fire Chief Newman Carter said the stack of hay was blazing up despite the downpour when the firemen arrived,” the paper reported.

“They rigged a siphon in an irrigation ditch and knocked the blaze out, but the hay continued to smolder.”

Carter said most of the hay was lost.

Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Contact him at:

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