A Fourth of July Tragedy at Spanaway Lake
A widowed mother’s holiday outing ends in horror when her two young sons are severely burned by accidental fireworks explosions.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. L. Briggs, a Tacoma dressmaker and a widow, took her two small boys to Spanaway Lake to spend the Fourth of July. While exploding some of their fireworks, their entire box became ignited, followed by a succession of rapid explosions which set fire to the children's clothes. One of them fell into the lake after being painfully burned. The water extinguished the flames, and after Mrs. Briggs had pulled him out, she dipped the other one into the water to quench the fire that was burning both him and his clothes. Later, the boys were brought to this city. They are suffering great pain and it is feared their injuries and the shock will render their condition critical.
“The water extinguished the flames, and after Mrs. Briggs had pulled him out, she dipped the other one into the water to quench the fire that was burning both him and his clothes.”
Fireworks accidents were a common staple of late-19th-century newspapers, highlighting the era's lack of safety standards compared to modern municipal displays. Spanaway Lake remains a popular recreation spot, though the era of unsupervised homemade pyrotechnics has largely faded into history.
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