A Close Call at Taylor’s Store
A young woman escapes serious injury in Walla Walla when her hat catches fire from a store’s light fixture.
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 curious accident, that came very near proving serious, occurred at Taylor’s store yesterday. Miss Celia Childs and a lady companion were making some purchases. Miss Childs approached too near a gas lighter and the trimmings upon her hat caught fire, burning her hair and face. A clerk immediately snatched a bucket of water from behind the counter and threw it over the young lady and thus extinguished the flames.
“Miss Childs approached too near a gas lighter and the trimmings upon her hat caught fire, burning her hair and face.”
This brief report from 1889 reflects a time when gas lighting—a miracle of the era—posed an constant, everyday fire hazard in crowded retail spaces. While our modern concerns in Seattle involve electrical safety or building code compliance, the anxiety of public safety in dense, bustling urban environments remains a perennial urban theme.
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