Dear Editor,

What a long time since the Antlers caught fire. I was wondering how long it had been.

I was cooking at the Vagabond the night it caught fire. Erlene Henson was cleaning the bathrooms and thought she smelled smoke. She came to the kitchen to see if I had burned something.

I had just put out an order for Antlers’ owner Blanche. I remember she ordered a Denver Sandwich; ham, onions, green peppers, and scrambled eggs on toast. Then Erleen said there was smoke coming in through the pipes in the kitchen. I walked over to the front windows, turned and looked, and then told Blanche that the Antlers was ablaze! I then called the fire in.

For the rest of the night and into the day the Vagabond was busy putting out meals for the firemen and any others that were helping.

The roads were icy that night but this town came together. My brother Richard Lohneis was fighting his own fire, trying to keep the flames away from his store, Coast to Coast, which was just a few feet away to the south of the Antlers.

Thank you to all who fought the fire, our town comes together when needed and thanks to Claude and his crew at the Vagabond.

Kathy Bone, Forks