Worked Stopped in Mill as Blaze Again Endangers Lumber Village

Jerb Holm, an itinerant, walked into the little lumber town of Verdi shortly before noon today, entirely unaware, apparently, that the town had been almost daily threatened by fire for a period of a week or more.

Holm walked down by the bridge that crosses the power company canal, just oft the new highway and adjacent to the railroad tracks. There he unpacked his traveling kit and made a fire and put his coffee on to boil.

In a few minutes his fire had got beyond control. The mill closed down and some two hundred men began their almost daily task of fighting flames. In the meantime Holm left camp hurriedly. Constable Frank Durham caught him, however, about three hundred yards distant. Tomorrow he will face a charge of starting a fire in the town city limits.

According to Jack Bell, who came to Reno this afternoon, had the fire not been conquered in a short time, or had it even scorched one Verdi home, there is no telling what might have happened. Bell says the citizens of Verdi threaten dire punishment to anyone caught setting the town afire again. Holm will have a hearing in the justice court tomorrow morning.