BROWNSDALE – Elmer M.

Monday, May 01, 2000

BROWNSDALE – Elmer M. Steinbach, 97, died of injuries suffered in a fire Saturday afternoon.

Despite the valiant attempts of members of the Brownsdale First Responder Squad and Brownsdale Volunteer Fire Department to save the elderly man, his body was covered with 80 percent burns when they arrived near 4:55 p.m. Saturday.

The victim was flown by Mayo One air ambulance from the Steinbach home outside Brownsdale to Regions Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he died later.

His wife discovered the man lying in the yard with flames engulfing him. The victim was apparently burning trash in a burn barrel Saturday afternoon, when wind picked up a spark and started the grass afire around him. The grass fire then spread to the man’s clothing.

Driver sought

The Austin Police Department is seeking the male driver of a vehicle, which another driver saw a small child fall from onto the pavement.

According to a police report, an unidentified driver reported seeing a child fall from a vehicle as it rounded 18th Avenue onto 14th Street near 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

The driver told police, a male subject stopped the car, exited the vehicle and rushed to pick up the child and then place it back in the vehicle before driving off.

The man followed the car to a Total convenience store and gas station, where he observed the man rush into the store before returning to his car moments later and driving away.

The vehicle is described as a black-colored car with rust spots.

A partial license plate number helped police learn the grandparents of the child, but the driver of the vehicle is still at large.

Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp said, "We want to ascertain if the child is all right."

The only violation the driver of the car could be found guilty of is failure to have the child, estimated at 3 years of age, seat-belted safely in the vehicle.