The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., June 29, 1923, page 1

FIRE AT LAUREL
Four Million Feet Of Pine Lumber Destroyed, Mill And Planer Saved

     Fire starting at the southeast end of the huge lumber yard of the Laurel Box & lumber Co., at Laurel Wednesday evening destroyed over 4,000,000 feet of a fine pine lumber awaiting shipment.
     Call for aid came in about nine o'clock and men from White Salmon and the Hood River fire department with the big chemical truck, rushed to the scene of the conflagration, but arrived at Laurel too late to be of assistance in spite of the fact that they made the trip in the record time of an hour and a half.
     The lumber is estimated to have been worth about $150,000 and was partly insured. The sawmill and planer mill were saved.
     According to W.H. Overbough of this city whos been working at the mill, smoke was discovered issuing from the lumber yard just after supper. A bucket brigade rushed to the scene, and at one time, almost had the fire under control, but suddenly it broke into a fierce mass of flames among the numerous piles of drying lumber on either side of the tramways. Outside of very small shipments, the lumber in the yard was the mill's output since March 19. The next morning piles of coal twenty feet high were still burning and will do so for days. It is learned that the mill will resume operations as soon as possible.
     

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer