Slattery to visit Pratt
Jim Slattery, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, will host a town hall meeting from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7 at the Commission Room in the Municipal Building. Slattery will take questions but this is not a formal question and answer session. The public is invited to attend the meeting. Slattery will face Republican Sen. Pat Roberts in the November general election.
Pratt will also play host to Sen. Sam Brownback at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 18 at the Community Center in Pratt. This is part of Brownback’s tour of the state. He is not up for re-election this year.
No suspects in fire
No suspects were found in suspicious dumpster fire by the First National Bank Thursday night. Firefighters were called to the scene at 11 p.m. and discovered the contents of the bank dumpster on fire.
The exact cause of the fire is unknown but it’s suspicious because there was no reason for the contents to catch fire, said Pratt Fire Chief David Kramer.
Pieces of carpet padding and cans of chemicals were found in the dumpster but nothing was found that could have started the fire accidentally.
“We know it was set,” said Pratt Fire Chief David Kramer.
Police officers talked to people in the area but no one had seen any suspicious activity.
The cause could have been a cigarette accidentally thrown in the dumpster or it could have been deliberately set, said Pratt Police Chief Steve Holmes.
“We don’t know the exact cause,” Holmes said. “We don’t believe it was an accelerant.”
The dumpster was far enough away from buildings that only the contents of the dumpster were damaged in the fire.
The dumpster sits next to the First National storage shed and is located next to Pratt Glass.
This is the second suspicious fire in downtown Pratt in just over a month. In late June a wooden wall in the alley behind 412 South Main caught fire with no obvious method of ignition.
