DATE OF INCIDENT: 8/4/2008
INCIDENT TYPE: Information
INCIDENT ADDRESS: 44 West Riverside
CITY: Spokane
STATE: WA
ZIP: 99201
NARRATIVE: Today marks the 119th Anniversary of Spokane's Great Fire. The following is an excerpt from an essay on www.Historylink.org;
On Sunday, August 4, 1889, a catastrophic fire destroyed most all of downtown Spokane. Although it began in an area of flimsy wooden structures, it quickly spread to engulf the substantial stone and brick buildings of the business district. Property losses were huge, and one death was reported. After the fire, Spokane experience the "phoenix effect" typical of many cities destroyed by fire, as fine new buildings of a revitalized downtown rise from the ashes.
The summer of 1889 had been hot and dry. On the afternoon of August 4, Adelaide Sutton Gilbert (1849-1932) complained in a letter from nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, of temperatures in the nineties "for ever so long" and "dense smoke from fires all over Northwest" (Nolan, 13). Shortly after 6:00 that evening, the Spokane fire began. The most credible and enduring story of its origin is that it started at Wolfe's lunchroom and lodgings opposite the Northern Pacific Depot on Railroad Avenue. The Spokane Daily Chronicle of August 5 reported:
"About half past six smoke was seen issuing from the third story gable window of Wolfe's lunch counter. ... The lower part of the establishment is used as a saloon, and the upper part, like most of the buildings in that locality, is used as a lodging house. As near as can be now ascertained, the fire was caused by the explosion of a gasoline lamp in the upper room referred to."
The flames raced through the flimsy buildings near the tracks. The nearby Pacific Hotel, a fine new structure of brick and granite, was soon engulfed in the wall of fire advancing on the business center. Church and fire station bells alerted the public and the volunteer fire department, which had formed in 1884 as the result of an 1883 fire. Because of insufficient water pressure for the hoses, they were unable to put out the fire. Spokane was no frontier town composed entirely of makeshift wooden structures, but the fire did start in such an area, where rubbish between buildings provided ideal tinder.
The fire consumed that part of the city and then moved on. "In quick succession the magnificent Frankfurt block, the Hyde block, the Washington, Eagle, Tull and Post Office blocks were feeding the flames. Besides the Pacific Hotel, every first class hotel was destroyed" (Chronicle, August 5).
Daniel H. Dwight (1862-1950) was typical of the many people who raced from home to remove contents of their businesses ahead of the flames. A letter describes the futile efforts to save his office in the Opera House:
"... Before this time May & I were downtown & and we hurried down to the block and I got tubs from the grocery store and put one at each window in the Opera House and filled them with water and stationed a man with a broom at each tub and window to keep the [fourth floor] window frames wet. ... May stood bravely by one with her broom & water. By this time the flames were down to Sprague St. and spreading rapidly. The chief of the fire department now began to blow up the buildings with dynamite ahead of the fire to try to stop it. ... A few minutes more and our glass began to crack & I had to order May downstairs and out of the building to get her away from danger. ... with one great burst the flames jumped through the Opera House windows and also leaped to the roof on the outside. ... I ... seized my antique oak desk and dragged it out [of his office] for it contained all my receipts and papers. I hauled it down the stairs but just as I got to the Opera House entrance the smoke & flames whirled round the corner and swept into the doorway with such blinding force that I had to let go of everything ... and run for my life" (Nolan, 24-26).
The flames jumped the spaces opened by dynamiting and soon created their own firestorm. In a few hours after it began, the Great Spokane Fire, as it came to be called, had destroyed 32 square blocks, virtually the entire downtown. The only fatality was George I. Davis, who died at Sacred Heart Hospital of burns and injuries when he fled (or jumped) from his lodgings at the Arlington Hotel.
Many others were treated at the hospital, where the nuns served meals to the newly homeless boardinghouse dwellers, mostly working men, plus others referred to in newspapers as the "sporting element." Estimates of property losses ranged from $5 to $10 million, an enormous sum for the time, with one-half to two-thirds of it insured.
Some of Spokane's leading citizens immediately formed a relief committee, and other cities donated food, supplies, and money. Even Seattle, just recovering from its own disastrous fire of June 6, sent $15,000. The National Guard was brought in to assure public order, to guard bank vaults and business safes standing amid the ruins, and to prevent looting. Mayor Fred Furth issued dire warnings against price gauging. Unemployed men immediately found work clearing the debris, and any who declined the opportunity were invited to leave town.
Businesses resumed in a hastily erected tent city. They included insurance adjusters, railroad ticket offices, banks, restaurants, clothing stores, and even a tent in which the Spokane Daily Chronicle carried on publication.
You can learn much more about the Great Spokane Fire at HistoryLink.org, the Museum of Arts and Culture and your Local Spokane Public Library.
PROBABLE CAUSE: N/A
DAMAGE EXTENT: N/A
DOLLAR LOSS:
FIREFIGHTER RESPONSE:
MUTUAL AID: None Given
For more information on this release, please call (509)625-7002 and/or check out the SFD Blog at www.spokanefire.blogspot.com
END OF RELEASE
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