A Sunday Train Ride Saved the Family, but Not Their House
The Sammons home in north Newport burned to the ground while the family was already aboard a train for a day trip; insurance covered barely half the loss.
Sunday morning about ten o'clock the fire alarm called the department to the M. M. Sammons' home in the north part of town. By the time the fire was discovered it had gained such headway that those first on the scene could save but a few articles, and before water could be turned on the blaze the house and practically all of its contents were ruined. Mr. Sammons and family had left the house but a half hour before to take the train to spend the day at the Bobier home near Wolfred. The fire evidently caught from the kitchen chimney. Loss about $2500 with insurance of $1200.
“By the time the fire was discovered it had gained such headway that those first on the scene could save but a few articles, and before water could be turned on the blaze the house and practically all of its contents were ruined.”
A house fire in 1909 could wipe out a family's savings even with insurance, and the Sammons case shows how thin that safety net was. In modern Pend Oreille County, wildfire and home-fire risk still put the same question on the table: how much protection can a family actually afford?
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