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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1859 | 7 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 5 |
| 1862 | 4 |
| 1863 | 4 |
| 1864 | 7 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 58 |
| 1877 | 44 |
| 1878 | 30 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 14 |
| 1882 | 17 |
| 1883 | 85 |
| 1884 | 32 |
| 1885 | 100 |
| 1886 | 52 |
| 1887 | 44 |
| 1888 | 42 |
| 1889 | 258 |
| 1890 | 32 |
| 1891 | 107 |
| 1892 | 316 |
| 1893 | 276 |
| 1894 | 241 |
| 1895 | 208 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 3 |
| 1898 | 10 |
| 1899 | 44 |
| 1900 | 7 |
| 1902 | 4 |
| 1903 | 96 |
| 1904 | 93 |
| 1905 | 7 |
| 1907 | 4 |
| 1908 | 31 |
| 1909 | 105 |
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| 1911 | 13 |
| 1912 | 4 |
| 1914 | 26 |
| 1915 | 29 |
| 1916 | 44 |
| 1917 | 19 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 20 |
| 1925 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
2,586 stories matching fire
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer
A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.
- A Wall of Flame at Newport's Doorstep
Wind-driven fires jump trenches in the Pend Oreille timber country, threatening Scott's Addition and costing ranchers and mills thousands in cordwood and logs.
- The Sky Turned to Smoke: Forest Fires Choke Puget Sound
Fires across Whatcom, Skagit and the Olympic Mountains destroyed bridges, barns and a shingle mill, derailed a Great Northern train and left Puget Sound under a suffocating haze.
- Fire Commissioner Accused of Drunkenness and Selling His Vote
Mayor Phelps files formal charges against George T. Masel, alleging he sold his vote for chief, kept the chief in fear, and attended a West Seattle fire drunk.
- The Kaniksu’s 1908 Fire Season: 40 Blazes, $3,569 Spent, and a Warning in the Young Timber
Federal rangers and local crews kept the Kaniksu National Forest from another Alispel-scale conflagration, but the season still burned 700 acres and cost an estimated $15,000 in damaged reproduction.
- The Night a Streetcar Powerhouse Fire Left Half of Seattle Dark
A pre-dawn blaze at Fifth and Pine gutted the Consolidated Street Railway plant, destroyed nearly all its cars and dynamos, crippled three lines, and blacked out everything north of Pike Street.
- Seattle's Fire Chief Vanished Before His Day in Court
A.B. Hunt disappeared after telling friends he was off to Tacoma for trial; the city removed him, named Alexander Allen Jr. chief, and left a mystery that only deepened when his father was summoned to prove his birth.
- A Wall of Fire Above Tacoma Creek
A lightning-sparked blaze burns 2,000 acres, jumps a three-mile trench and pulls lumber companies, settlers and the state fire warden into a desperate fight.
- A Wall of Smoke and Flame Across Puget Sound
Forest fires from Hood Canal to the Nooksack Valley left dozens of families homeless in 1894, while smoke turned steamboat travel blind and daily life in Seattle into a gray haze.
- The Mayor Clears the Room: Phelps Fires a Fire Commissioner and Stares Down a Coup
When Fire Commissioner Masel and two allies tried to break Chief Allen on a trumped-up morals charge, Mayor Phelps suspended Masel for not being a freeholder — and the three commissioners walked out into the night.
- Nineteen Buildings Gone Before Breakfast
With no fire department and only buckets, the Kitsap County seat of Sidney watched its entire business district burn to the ground in three hours — then promised to rebuild as Seattle had.
- Rain Stops the Great Pend Oreille Fire After a Firefighter Is Killed
More than a hundred men cut fire lines from Tacoma Creek to Little Pend Oreille lakes as flames threaten Sandpoint and destroy tens of millions of feet of timber.
- He Paid a Man $12 to Burn His Own House
A barber and the man he hired confess to torching 128 Rollin Street for the insurance money — a house that had already burned once, and whose policy had already been cut in half.
- Tacoma's Suspicious Fires—and a Fire Department That Couldn't Get Water
A wave of blazes on E Street and beyond leaves homes in ashes, a hose driver suspended, an alarm delayed, and the fire chief convinced tramps set the occupied houses alight.
- The Poor Man's Stump Burner: Newport Farmers Pack Kelly's Hall
In 1909, 150 farmers crowded a Newport hall to hear a state expert explain how to clear land by charring stumps—a low-cost method that promised to open Pend Oreille County fields.
- Suspicion of Arson After Slaughter House Fire
An early morning fire on the Beach road leaves a local meat business in ruins, with the owner offering a bounty for the arsonist.
- A Miraculous Escape for Seattle
A waterfront fire threatens to consume the business district, but the volunteer fire department saves the day.
- Four Sections Burn Along the Pend Oreille
A week-long blaze near Ruby Creek is finally checked, leaving ranchers, timber and a county bridge in ashes—and one firefighter carried ten miles to safety.
- A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.
A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.
- Fire Chief Ousted in Late-Night Commission Coup
A divided fire commission removes Chief Allen for 'incompetency' and taps ex-Chief Kellogg, prompting a furious protest from the mayor.
- Seattle’s Fire Department Answered 197 Alarms in 1893 — Nearly Half Were False
The chief’s annual report counted 98 false alarms, touted small losses, and asked the city for a fire marshal and better alarm wires.
- A Fire Commissioner on Trial Over Rotten Hose
George T. Masel faces the city council over charges he moved to force unfit Baker fabric fire hose into service — and witness after witness describes the couplings flying off under pressure.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died Because They Stayed to Fight the Fire
A blaze in the Franklin coal mine sent smoke through the gangways on Aug. 24, 1894, killing 37 men and boys who thought they had time to escape.
Also about this, in other words
- A Fire Trap in the Making
Carelessness with ashes and exploding lamps threaten to consume a downtown business block.
- A Domestic Worker's Near-Fatal Fire
While caring for a child, a domestic worker is severely burned when her clothing catches fire; a bystander saves her by rolling her in the mud of Front Street.
- A Lamp Explodes and Firemen Are Trapped in a Third Avenue Blaze
An oil lamp exploded in a picture-frame shop at 1908 Third Street, burning its owner and trapping firefighters in a re-ignited wall of flame.
- An Act of Solidarity in the Tenderloin
A fire deliberately set in Walla Walla's Chinatown was extinguished by a local woman, thwarting an attempt to destroy the neighborhood.
- A Lamp, a Kitchen, and a Lake Union Fire
A domestic accident leaves a family homeless after a runaway kitchen lamp destroys a house on the shores of Lake Union.
- The Deadly Hum of the Electric Current
A routine building fire in downtown Seattle turns into a terrifying, lethal brush with the new technology of electricity.
- Fire Claims a Veteran's Souvenirs
A local veteran loses his home and irreplaceable mementos from his overseas military service to an accidental fire.
- A Brothel Fire, a Woman Thrown From a Window, and a Logger Burned to Death
A 5 a.m. blaze in Aberdeen killed one man and fatally injured a woman; a survivor jumped naked through flames to the street.