The Hidden Hazard of the Woods
A toddler suffers horrific burns after falling into a camouflaged pit of smoldering rot.
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 child of Domino Caviller, who lives a few miles below town, was shockingly burned about the feet one day last week. A fire in some dry rotten wood had burned into the ground, leaving a thin crust on top which gave no evidence of the intense heat below. The little one, who is only a year and a half old, walked right into this crust and sank to its knees, after which it tumbled over and lay several minutes before it was rescued. One leg is burned so deep that it is yet a question if it can be saved, and the other is in a fearful state. One side of the body was also severely burned, besides injuries to its hands and arms. Medical aid other than home treatment was not had for the little sufferer for two or three days after the accident, when Dr. Malone was called.
“A fire in some dry rotten wood had burned into the ground, leaving a thin crust on top which gave no evidence of the intense heat below.”
This tragic incident serves as a grim reminder of the industrial-era landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where deep-woods fires often burned unseen underground for days. Today, we manage fire risks differently, but the story reflects a time when rural life near the growing frontier of Seattle held sudden, invisible perils for the youngest inhabitants.
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