From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 12, 1989:

After a 12-hour battle in single-degree temperatures, Lawrence firefighters had successfully extinguished a house fire in East Lawrence. Firefighters had been called at 9:45 p.m. to the fire, which gutted the one-story frame house at 1113 New York, causing an estimated $15,000 damage. No one had been inside the house at the time of the fire, the cause of which was under investigation. Bob Burton, firefighter commander on the scene that night, said firefighters were having a difficult time because there was a large amount of flammable material in the attic of the house. “We’re having trouble getting into the attic,” he said. “There’s a lot of insulation and papers and other materials up there.” Burton said one firefighter had fallen through the roof of the house but was not injured. At about 8:30 this morning, firefighters had made the call to Lawrence city workers to tear down the walls of the still-smoldering house so they could douse the last of the burning debris. “The structure is unsafe to go into because of the weight in the attic,” Fire Capt. Allen Johnson had reported. “The attic was full of mattresses, and bags of leaves that were being used as insulation.” A city backhoe had arrived and tore through the charred walls of the house while firefighters continued to spray the structure with water. The fire was finally extinguished at about 10:30 this morning. Although the cause of the blaze had not been determined, Fire Marshal Rich Barr said a wood-burning stove in the house might have been a contributing factor. “Those are great, but people have to be careful when they use those alternative systems,” Barr said. “When you have combustible materials gathering in the chimney, you get an increase in fires.”