Home Lost in Afternoon Fire
A northern Yakima house is reduced to ash while a mother tends to her sick child.
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.
The residence of Orlando Beck, in the northern part of the city, was destroyed by fire Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Beck was at home at the time nursing a sick child, and had kindled a fire in the front room, where the fire must have started, as no other cause can be assigned. The fire department was promptly at hand, but the flames had gained such headway that the only service that could be rendered was to protect the out-buildings. Mr. Beck estimates his loss at upwards of $2,000, but carried an insurance of $1,000 on the house and $400 on the furniture. Some household goods were saved, but the more valuable furniture was consumed.
“Mrs. Beck was at home at the time nursing a sick child, and had kindled a fire in the front room.”
Residential fires were a constant, terrifying reality in the era of wood-frame construction and hearth heating. Today, while building codes have evolved, the economic precarity highlighted by the gap between the Becks' loss and their insurance coverage remains a familiar struggle for many families.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.