Call your local newspapers and ask. My guess is they keep that in microfiche or they have scanned the microfiche to computer.
My house caught on fire back on January 2 1997 I believe, and I was wondering how can I find out. How do you search in newspapers back then?
Most public libraries keep copies of newspapers on microfische. So check with you local library.
About the same time -- certainly in the late 1990s and before the Internet -- I had reason to search for a violent death. I went to our leading Sydney newspaper and searched their Microfische archives. Your own newspaper will have a similar facility.
If they've actually digitised their content -- a mammoth job -- it'll be easier. Although the Internet was still in it infancy at the time of your fire, computers were already widely used in newspaper offices. They may have gone to the expense of compiling their files.
