Other days
100 YEARS AGO May 20, 1919
PINE BLUFF — Pine Bluff firemen won a hard battle late last night with a blaze that threatened for an hour to set fire to half a dozen large oil storage tanks of the Magnolia and other oil companies in the west part of town. The loss was confined to a hay warehouse, partly filled with food, valued at $5,000. F. Baer, owner of the building, was in New York. The warehouse was burning rapidly when the Fire Department was called over and the fire fighters confined their efforts to saving the oil tanks. …The fire is believed to have started from spontaneous combustion in the hay.
50 YEARS AGO May 20, 1969
HELENA — One person is injured critically and four pleasure boats were destroyed early Monday when an explosion and fire damaged a boat dock at Helena. Norris L. Parham, 63, of Helena was hospitalized at Memphis after the explosion on his 34-foot house boat hurled him through the side of his boat and the side of his metal boat house, authorities said. Officers said the fire apparently started when Parham either lit a cigarette or attempted to start his boat. The 100-gallon gasoline tanks on the boat had been filled the night before, they said. Police said the blaze could be seen three miles away and that the explosion was heard at the police station a mile from the dock.
25 YEARS AGO May 20, 1994
■ Damage from a fire Saturday morning at a North Little Rock business has been estimated at $500,000, a Fire Department spokesman said Thursday. Fire Marshal James Hall said the fire started in the storage room of Kinko’s Copies at 5011 John F. Kennedy Blvd. about 12:50 a.m. Saturday. Hall said heat and smoke from the fire damaged sensitive photocopy equipment but did not destroy the building. An investigation determined the fire began in a storage room and was started by a cigarette or a similar item, he said. One employee was in the business when the fire started, Hall said. He said there were no injuries.
10 YEARS AGO May 20, 2009
ARKADELPHIA — School is out at Henderson State University, but apparently one young male didn’t get the message. A black bear strolled through Arkadelphia on Monday night, stopping at the Hardee’s, a gas station and the Sonic before heading to campus. “He could be looking for a date or trying to find a place where he’s not getting picked on,” said the state’s bear biologist, Myron Means, noting that it’s both mating season and the time of year when young males look for their own “home range.” By the time the bear found his way to the south side of campus around 10:30 p.m., Arkadelphia police were on his trail. And like any renegade with the heat on his back, the bear tried to abscond, hustling up a tree. “He really wanted out of town really, really badly,” said Brady Baker, a wildlife supervisor with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission who was called in to catch the beast. Even with the spring semester over, a crowd gathered at the front of the HSU president’s house, where the gawkers had a front-row seat to the action, said Steve Fellers, a spokesman for the university. “Word starting getting around there was a bear,” Fellers said. So police kept the crowds at bay, while Baker fired a tranquilizer dart at the bear to sedate him, causing him to fall from the tree.