5/10/2008:
There was a bit of a scare in Bismarck on the afternoon of this day in 1967.
Billows of smoke poured out of a house on 14th street, belonging to a Donald Feimer.
An anonymous good Samaritan was just pulling out of a service station across from the Feimer house when he noticed the smoke. He called the fire department at 1:05, to report the fire.
Immediately, firefighters raced over, sirens screaming and lights flashing, as they prepared themselves for the worst possibilities.
However, when they got there, they realized one discrepancy: There was no fire.
Feimer had disposed of some plastic waste material in his furnace, and it produced a heavy smoke. Though the firemen agreed that the heavy smoke pouring over the house appeared to be a house fire, the actual fire was "confined to the furnace."
As the Bismarck Tribune reported, "Where there's smoke—(there's) nothing."
By Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Bismarck Tribune, Thursday, May 11, 1967, p.12