The Heroic Kitchen Defense
When a kitchen fire threatened to raze her home, a Snohomish woman didn't wait for help, personally battling the flames until the structure was saved.
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.
On last week Tuesday, at about five P.M., the residence of Mr. Hughes, about a mile from town, caught fire from a defective kitchen flue. Mrs. Hughes was alone about the house. By her coolness, courage, and self-possession, the fire was promptly put out almost as quickly as discovered. In the effort, she reached several severe injuries while carrying water to the roof, and in pulling off the burning boards, as well as in smothering the fire with wet blankets; but for her promptness, the house would in a few moments have been a smoldering mass of ruins. Her hands were very badly burned and she fell several times from the kitchen roof. These burns kept her in bed for several days, but she is rapidly recovering from all these injuries.
“But for her promptness, the house would in a few moments have been a smoldering mass of ruins.”
In an era before standardized building codes and local fire departments were fully integrated in rural Snohomish County, the safety of a home rested entirely on the physical bravery of its inhabitants. Mrs. Hughes's desperate struggle to save her kitchen against a faulty flue mirrors the persistent, high-stakes battle modern homeowners face regarding property maintenance and disaster risk in an increasingly aging regional housing stock.
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