On June 13, 1911, a large drum of disinfectant exploded and ignited the beautiful Jasper County Courthouse in Joplin, Missouri.

Thankfully, only three men were in the building at the time. One escaped out a first floor exit. The other two had somewhat more harrowing experience. From the account in the June 14, 1911 edition of the Joplin Daily Globe:

[Deputy Circuit Clerk George] Brader and [Deputy Sheriff Nelson] Milligan remained in the office long enough to gather books and records from the desks and place them in the vault, when they, too, started for the exit. They found themselves cut off from escape down the stairway, the flames then lapping the walls of the second floor.

As the cloud of smoke in advance of the fire was filling the corridor they ran through the court room of division No. 1, then into the library. Realizing their predicament, they leaped from a window and escaped.

The Jasper County Courthouse on Seventh Street and Virginia Avenue burns on June 13, 1911. JOPLIN GLOBE ARCHIVES

These and many other historic images and full front pages can be found in the Joplin Globe's new hardbound, large-format book, "Greater Joplin Through Our Eyes: 120 Years of Front Pages & Photos from the Globe and its Readers."