No Telephone, No Alarm: A House Gone Before the Department Knew
Fred Stewart's home south of the Great Northern tracks burned to the ground at noon on a Wednesday. The neighbours could not save a thing, a daughter barely escaped, and $40 in cash went up with the walls.
The residence of Fred Stewart, on the south side of the Great Northern tracks, was destroyed by fire at noon on Wednesday. The house was located some distance from the telephone, so no alarm was received in time for the department to respond. The building burned so rapidly that the neighbours were unable to save any of the contents of the house.
Mrs. Stewart was absent from the house at the time and Mr. Stewart is down the river. A daughter who was at home barely escaped from the burning building. About $40 in money was also burned. The loss on the building and contents will probably reach $600.
“The house was located some distance from the telephone, so no alarm was received in time for the department to respond.”
The fire department never got the call because the house had no telephone — an accident of isolation that turned a house fire into a total loss in the space of a few minutes. Fire response times in rural Pend Oreille County remain a live issue today, where volunteer departments cover long distances and water supply is a chronic constraint. The $600 loss was ruinous for a working family in a town where a building lot sold for $100.
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