Lawter Apartment House - Putnam

A fire gutted an upstairs apartment at the Lawter Apartment House Harrison Street, Russellville Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported, although an upstairs apartment rented by Julia Pierce was gutted. Damage estimates are not available as the insurance adjuster has not surveyed the scene, fireman Ron Higgins told the Banner-Graphic Tuesday morning. The apartment house, which has two upstairs and three downstairs apartments, was the old Russellville Hotel before Maxine Lawter and her son, Bill, bought and renovated the building. According to Higgins, two girls living in the other upstairs apartment escaped uninjured through a window out onto the roof and jumped on the top of a parked vehicle to their safety. Pierce had been frying fish and boiling water when she left the stove unattended to go to her mother’s residence. According to Higgins, the cause of the fire was overheated grease on two back burners. Although Pierce’s apartment was gutted, the other apartments sustained only minor smoke and water damage.  ---kbz