Driven by a northern breeze, the fire spread from the beauty salon across rooftops during the afternoon to four other Main Street buildings. Black, white and gray smoke billowed over the town of 1,200.

The blaze was confined to structures housing the beauty salon, A Little Off the Top, as well as the North Bend Eagle weekly newspaper, Beyond Body Work massage parlor, L.A. Tanning, Emanuel Custom Welding, the Pour House bar and an apartment above.

The City Auditorium, across an alley north of the bar, was not threatened. It served as a rest area for firefighters. Townspeople delivered homemade sandwiches and leftover Christmas cakes, pies and cookies.

Firefighters gave an “outstanding effort,” and the community did what it could to help, Pook said.

Nathan Arneal, publisher and editor of the Eagle, said he thought he smelled smoke after arriving at the office about 11 a.m. Monday.

“It smelled like something was burning, but we figured it was exhaust from the heavy equipment moving snow outside or that smell you get when the heater kicks on,” Arneal said. “We smelled that for a couple of hours.”

After going to lunch at about 1:30 p.m., Arneal received a phone call from his mother, Mary Le Arneal, who said smoke was coming from the salon next door. Mary Le Arneal is the newspaper’s office manager and a reporter.

Nathan Arneal said he and his mother called the owners of the salon while a visitor from out of state reported the fire to authorities.

“By that time, you could see smoke from the top of the buildings,” Nathan Arneal said.

Andy Bourek, the husband of salon operator Autumn Bourek, arrived and sprayed a fire extinguisher on flames burning through a small hole in the front of the building. The Arneals carried computers, cameras and expensive equipment out of the newspaper office.

“It looked like we would be OK,” Nathan Arneal said. “At that time, it didn’t seem like that big a deal. I wish we had carried more stuff out.”

Flames appeared to have destroyed the newspaper office, which housed the weekly’s bound archives of editions dating to the 1880s.

Arneal said Andy Bourek told him that he was at the salon at about 9:30 a.m. and noticed that an electrical circuit-breaker had tripped. Bourek told Arneal that he didn’t smell smoke.

 As firefighters poured water on the flames, they set up several temporary reservoirs in the streets from which to pump water. Gambino’s Pizza, a Main Street business, delivered free pizzas to firefighters resting at the auditorium.

Witnesses said the local Veterans of Foreign Wars organization probably lost its collection of ceremonial American flags stored in one of the burned buildings.

Greg Kugler, who lived in the apartment above the bar, lost many antiques, witnesses said.

Arneal, the publisher, said he was planning a front-page story about the 40th anniversary of the North Bend High School building for Wednesday’s edition.

“That will be postponed a few weeks,” he said.