Fire Narrowly Averted at Highlands Home
A superheated fireplace tile ignites the floorboards of the Lehnhard residence, sparking a mid-winter emergency.
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.
A blaze which might have destroyed their home was discovered just in time by A. Lehnhard on Sunday morning. The strong smell of smoke caused Mr. Lehnhard to begin an investigation as to the source and found that the tiling in front of the fireplace had been superheated and the boards below had become ignited. Prompt measures extinguished the blaze before much damage was done.
“The strong smell of smoke caused Mr. Lehnhard to begin an investigation as to the source.”
Fireplaces remain a common source of residential fires in the Pacific Northwest during the winter heating season. This account underscores how early detection in rural or detached homes prevented catastrophe before the advent of modern smoke alarms.
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