Abandoned Mill Consumed by Fire
A high-wind blaze at the old Mentzer mill threatened nearby homes in the North End.
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.
Yesterday afternoon the old Mentzer mill, near the end of Sixth avenue, caught fire, and nearly three hours had passed before the firemen had succeeded in extinguishing the flames. A high wind was blowing at the time and the flying sparks ignited the dry grass in the woods, which greatly increased the danger. If the flames had gained much headway in the woods several dwellings would have been burned to the ground. The old mill has been abandoned for some time and the origin of the fire is unknown.
“A high wind was blowing at the time and the flying sparks ignited the dry grass in the woods, which greatly increased the danger.”
Tacoma’s history is dotted with the skeletons of abandoned timber mills. This incident illustrates the constant peril that dry summer winds posed to the city's early wooden housing stock, a vulnerability that shaped modern fire safety regulations in the region.
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