A Kitchen Stove Fire Cost a Salmon Bay Family Their Home
A pre-dawn blaze in Salmon Bay Park destroyed John Rendleman's five-room house; the family escaped, but all their household belongings were lost.
A one-story house of five rooms in Salmon Bay Park, north of Ballard, belonging to John Rendleman, was burned about 3 o'clock Friday morning. Some of the family were sick during the night, and a fire was started in the kitchen stove. A short time after they retired Mrs. Rendleman was awakened by the smoke and found the building on fire. The family barely had time to escape from the building, and all their household effects were lost. Loss on building, $600; insurance, $300.
“The family barely had time to escape from the building, and all their household effects were lost.”
Salmon Bay Park is now part of Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, where older wooden housing still carries fire risk. The Rendlemans' loss is a reminder that a single kitchen fire could erase a working family's entire material life, with insurance covering only half the building's value.
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