This day in history: Fire destroyed the home of a Vietnamese refugee family resettled in Spokane

From 1976: A Vietnamese refugee family was attending an English language class when they learned that their home on West 14th Avenue went up in smoke.

“Many of the family’s few personal possessions were lost,” the Spokane Chronicle reported.

A furnace pipe placed too close to a combustible wall was blamed for the blaze.

The basement and first floor were “badly charred.” Smoke and water caused damage throughout.

The family’s local sponsor said they had just obtained a job for head of the family.

“Everything was rosy – then this happened.”

A fund was set up to help the couple and their eight children.

From 1926: A new, modern pastime was invented at the foot of Mayfair hill in Spokane: radio coasting.

“Coasting” meant sledding, and now people were doing it to the accompaniment of music from an outdoor radio.

“Large crowds of coasters and visitors were continually clustered about the set … listening rapturously to entrancing band music, violin solos, cello obligatos and singing,” the Chronicle reported.

The radio was set at the foot of the hill. Its aerial was “strung across the foot of the hill at the height of about 20 feet.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1905: Troops fire on a large group of protesters in St. Petersburg, Russia, in what becomes known as Bloody Sunday.

1973: The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes most abortions with the Roe v. Wade decision.