Seattle, Washington 1889
The most devastating fire to ever strike Seattle began towards the end of an unusually dry Washington spring in June of 1889. A woodworker’s assistant was heating glue which left briefly unattended boiled over. The spilled glue caught fire and in the fire-friendly environment in which the blaze found itself, with wood shavings covering the floors and plenty of accelerants such as turpentine and paints nearby, the fire spread too quickly for the hapless worker to contain it.
When the fire department arrived at the scene the heavy smoke caused by these same materials hampered their efforts to locate the center of the fire, which was out of control within minutes. A liquor store next door and a saloon on the far side of that business provided the fire with nearly unlimited fuel in its early phase.
With a full city block soon ablaze the inadequacies of Seattle’s firefighting system were quickly revealed. The dry spring had reduced the available supply of water and the system of piping it to the city streets was flawed by the use of wooden pipes, which soon burned through, creating leaks. Reductions in water pressure were the inevitable result.
Water from the harbor was considered as an alternative but inadequate hose length prevented the firefighters from using that source. As in other major fires, explosives were used to create firebreaks by detonating some buildings but the gaps created were insufficient and the fire easily breached them. When the fire was finally extinguished around 3.00 AM, over 120 acres of the downtown Seattle area and its immediate environs were destroyed, including many of the city’s wharves and docks. Over 25 city blocks were gone. With them were the city’s commercial district, its railroad stations, and over $530 million in 2017 dollars of property.
Seattle rebuilt itself quickly in the aftermath of the fire and put in place several building codes designed to prevent a similar disaster. The city also publicized one benefit from the fire. According to its estimates over one million rats had been killed by the blaze, and Seattle touted its rebuilding downtown area as being nearly vermin free.