A Close Call at Salmon Bay
A church picnic takes a turn for the terrifying when a woman's dress catches fire near the water.
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. Laura Lake, of Ballard, met with an accident yesterday at a lake side given to a few members of St. Stephen's Episcopal church, at a lot near the mouth of Salmon Bay. The fire by which the clams were baked had been left unattended, and Mrs. Lake's dress caught fire from the burning embers, and in an instant was ablaze. Her husband and several others tried to extinguish the blaze with their hands, but not succeeding, they picked her up and carried her into the Sound. Mrs. Lake's dress was burned to the waist, and she was badly frightened, but fortunately was not injured. Her husband's hands, however, were badly burned. High wind prevailed at the time and the clothes of several others in the party also caught fire, but it was put out without much difficulty.
“Her husband and several others tried to extinguish the blaze with their hands, but not succeeding, they picked her up and carried her into the Sound.”
The mouth of Salmon Bay has been entirely transformed by the construction of the Ballard Locks, turning what was once a natural tidal basin into the highly engineered canal system connecting Puget Sound to the Ship Canal. This story serves as a reminder of the raw, informal use of Seattle's shoreline for leisure before massive industrialization reshaped it.
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