Looking Back: Faulty chimney causes home to go up in flames

Published 3:35 pm Friday, November 13, 2015

100 years ago

A rash of fatal school fires in a number of eastern cities had furnished a suggestion that Whidbey school directors move younger students in the high school building to the first floor.
The home of L.F. Bonnelle, located about six miles north of Oak Harbor, was destroyed by fire. It was supposed that the fire was caused by a faulty chimney.

75 years ago

Members of all civic organizations were scheduled to meet at the Liberal League Hall, San de Fuca, in order to form an Island County National Defense Council, sponsored by members of the American Legion. The council was being formed “in view of the present national emergency” and to give assistance toward national defense.
Island County’s draft quota for the following six months would be fulfilled by one man, according to the draft clerk. One applicant had already volunteered, which would take care of the quota if the applicant were accepted.
The 1941 agricultural soil conservation program was to be explained to farmers of Island County in a series of meetings. It would be necessary for all farmers who had not sent in their orders for superphosphate to attend the meetings if they desired to secure government phosphate for the year.

50 years ago

A little red dog named Benjie, frightened and bleeding, was recovered after a car crash on Memorial Highway that left Mrs. Raymond Baeyen’s car impaled on 65 feet of steel railing after she hit the center guard rail. Baeyen was too badly injured to notice the dog was missing, and her son Dennis was too busy tending to his mother to give the dog much thought at the time. After police had cleared the scene, they alerted farmers that the dog may be in the area, to no avail. The next day, a neighbor drove the Baeyen boys to the scene to search for their pet, and eventually located him on the side of the old highway.
The case of John Carabba vs. the School Districts of Anacortes and Oak Harbor went to the jury. The trial lasted 20 days, one of the longest on record. Carabba had sought a half-million dollars, but that amount had been decreased to $876,000.

25 years ago

A call from then-President Bush for a boost in the U.S. presence in the standoff with Iraq more than doubled the numbers of Whidbey-based personnel involved in the Iraq-Kuwait crisis. Five Whidbey-based squadrons, totaling 1,280, were to join the tens of thousands heading for the Middle East. About 1,100 Whidbey-based personnel had already responded to the crisis.
Three men were arrested on suspicion of malicious harassment and one was charged in the swastika-painting and cross-burning outside the home of a racially mixed Oak Harbor family. All three men were Oak Harbor residents and members of the U.S. Navy attached to Medium Attack Squadron 128 at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Naval Investigative Services participated in the investigation. Dale L. Quickie was charged with one count of malicious harassment and one count of conspiracy to commit malicious harassment. Marlon W. Burns and Terry K. Bishop were arrested but had not yet been charged.