Terry and Rhonda Jarrett, 2110 12th Avenue NE, lost their home in a late-Sunday night fire.

Monday, January 17, 2000

Terry and Rhonda Jarrett, 2110 12th Avenue NE, lost their home in a late-Sunday night fire.

According to Austin Fire and Police departments’ reports, the couple and their two sons were asleep before the fire was discovered at 11:39 p.m. Sunday.

Terry Jarrett awoke and ordered his wife, Rhonda, and their two sons (unidentified) out of the home. When police officers first arrived at the scene – near the J.C. Hormel Nature Center – the second story of the house was engulfed in flames.

Austin firefighters brought the blaze under control, but not before the home was declared a total loss, including both the structure and possessions inside.

The Jarretts told investigators that they have no home owner’s insurance.

The family was placed in an Austin motel overnight while emergency aid from the Mower County chapter of the American Red Cross was obtained.

The cause of the blaze is undetermined, but Terry Jarrett told investigators at the scene that he believed it originated in the ceiling above the kitchen area.

Fire inspectors are at the scene today sifting through the rubble.

Arena burglarized

Riverside Arena was the scene of another burglary.

According to an Austin Police Department report, the break-in occurred sometime between 8 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday.

Entrance was gained by smashing the glass in a northeast door, where there were footprints left in the snow.

The window to the office door was also broken and thieves attempted to pry open a cash register and break open a coin machine without success.

They did take a pay telephone with them when they exited a northwest side door, where a glove was found.

Jeff Bates, a Riverside Arena employee, also told police the locker room and individual lockers were entered. An inventory is being taken to determine what is missing from the hockey players lockers.

Later Sunday, a police officer discovered coins and footprints beneath the 4th Avenue Northeast bridge over the Cedar River and the pay telephone lying on ice in the river.