NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Great Seattle Fire

The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire downtown area of Seattle, Washington, on June 6, 1889. Start of the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, looking south on 1st Ave. ... Start of the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, looking south on 1st Ave. ... For other uses, see Fire (disambiguation). ... Downtown Seattle, from top of Space Needle (looking south) Map of Downtown Seattle Downtown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. ... â€œSeattleâ€ redirects here. ... is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

1 Events of the fire
- 1.1 Spread of fire
- 1.2 Magnitude of destruction
2 Reconstruction and recovery
- 2.1 Post-fire reform
3 References
4 External links
5 Further Reading

Events of the fire

At approximately 2:30 pm on June 6, 1889, an overturned glue pot in the carpentry shop of John Bachs started the most destructive fire in the history of Seattle.^[1]

Spread of fire

Fed by the shop’s timber and an unusually dry summer, the blaze erupted and soon devoured the entire block. The fire quickly spread north to the Kenyon block and the nearby Madison and Griffith blocks.

A combination of ill-preparedness and unfortunate circumstances contributed to the great fire. Seattle’s water supply was insufficient in fighting the inferno. Fire hydrants were sparsely located on every other street, usually connected to small pipes.^[2] There were so many hydrants in use during the fire that the water pressure was too weak to fight such a massive blaze. Seattle also operated by a volunteer fire department, which was competent, but inadequate in extinguishing the fire. Fire hydrant in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA A fire hydrant (also known colloquially as a fire plug in the United States or as a johnny pump in New York City), is an active fire protection measure, and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal... A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, see V.F.D.. See also the Firefighter article and its respective sections regarding VFDs in other countries. ...

Magnitude of destruction

Over fifty-eight city blocks burned. While there are no records of any deaths, over five thousand jobs were lost in Seattle’s business district. The fire destroyed nearly the entire business district, all of the railroad terminals, and all but four of the wharves. Despite the massive destruction of property, nobody died in the fire, although there were a few fatalities during the cleanup process. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Metung Wharf on Bancroft Bay, Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, Australia A wharf is a fixed platform, commonly on pilings, roughly parallel to and alongside navigable water, where ships are loaded and unloaded. ...

Total losses were estimated at nearly $20,000,000.^[3]

Reconstruction and recovery

Despite the magnitude of destruction, the rebuilding effort began quickly. Seattle’s saving grace was that citizens decided to rebuild rather than starting over somewhere else.

Seattle rebuilt from the ashes with astounding rapidity. The fire had done a fine job of cleansing the town of rats and other vermin; a new zoning code resulted in a downtown of brick and stone buildings, rather than wood. Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Look up vermin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A typical zoning map; this one identifies the zones, or development districts, in the city of Ontario, California Zoning is a North American term for a system of land-use regulation. ... A brick in a wall An old brick wall in English bond laid with alternating courses of headers and A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction and sized to be laid with one hand using mortar. ... This balancing rock, Steamboat Rock stands in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, CO The rocky side of a mountain creek near OrosÃ, Costa Rica. ...

In the year following the fire Seattle’s population actually grew by nearly 20,000 to 40,000 inhabitants from the influx of people helping to recreate the city.^[4] Supplies and funds came from all over the West Coast to support the relief effort. The population increase made Seattle the largest city in Washington, making it a leading contender in becoming the terminus of the Great Northern Railroad.^[5] Great Northern may refer to: the Great Northern Diver, Gavia adamsii, a bird the Great Northern War, a war fought by Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland against Sweden the Great Northern Railway, an Irish railway the Great Northern Railway, a United States railroad the Great Northern Railway, a British...

Post-fire reform

The city made many improvements as a response to the fire. The city’s fire department shifted from a volunteer to a professional force with new firehouses and a new chief. The city took control of the water supply; increasing the number of hydrants and adding larger pipes.^[2] The advent of brick buildings to downtown Seattle was one of the many architectural improvements the city made in the wake of the fire. New city ordinances set standards for the thickness of walls and required “division walls” between buildings.^[6] These changes became principal features of post-fire construction and are still visible in Seattle’s Pioneer Square district today, the present-day location of the fire. At Pioneer Square, guided tours are also available to paying customers.

References

^ Austin, Charles W.; H.S. Scott. "The Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889". Washington State Genealogical and Historical Review (Spring, 1983): 41-72.
^ ^a ^b Great Seattle Fire. Digital Collections. University of Washington Libraries (23 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
^ Austin & Scott, p. 45
^ Davies, Kent R.. "Sea of Fire". Columbia Magazine (Summer 2001): 32-38.
^ MacDonald, Norbert (1987). Distant Neighbors: A Comparative History of Seattle and Vancouver. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 33-38.
^ Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl; Dennis A. Andersen (2003). Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy OF H.H. Richardson. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 55-110.

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

University of Washington Libraries Austin, Charles W., The great Seattle fire of June 6th, 1889: containing a succinct and complete account of the greatest conflagration on the Pacific coast.
University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections:
- William F. Boyd Photograph Album 43 photographs of early Seattle, particularly scenes of the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, and Washington state, ca. 1888-1893.
- Boyd and Braas Photographs 45 photographs, ca. 1888-1893, of early Seattle, including the waterfront and street scenes, the Great Seattle fire of June 6, 1889, Madrona and Leschi parks, Native American hop pickers, and portraits of Seattle pioneers.
- Asahel Curtis Photo Company Photographs Photographs (ca. 1850s-1940) depicting activities in Washington state, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska and the Klondike.
- Prosch Seattle Views Album 169 images by Thomas Prosch, one of Seattle's earliest pioneers, documenting the early history of Seattle and vicinity, ca. 1851-1906. Included are images of the waterfront, businesses, residences, and the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.
- Prosch Washington Views Album 101 images (ca. 1858-1903) collected and annotated by Thomas Prosch, one of Seattle's earliest pioneers. Images document scenes in Eastern Washington especially Chelan and vicinity, and Seattle's early history including the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.
- Seattle Photographs Ongoing database of over 1,700 historical photographs of Seattle with special emphasis on images depicting neighborhoods, recreational activities including baseball, the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, "The Great Snow of 1916", theaters and transportation.

HistoryLink.org Seattle's Great Fire -- A Snapshot History, Essay #715

Contents

Events of the fire GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");