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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 22 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 18 |
| 1886 | 11 |
| 1887 | 9 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 37 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 13 |
| 1892 | 52 |
| 1893 | 54 |
| 1894 | 42 |
| 1895 | 23 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 8 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 11 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1908 | 6 |
| 1909 | 19 |
| 1914 | 8 |
| 1915 | 10 |
| 1916 | 9 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 7 |
435 stories matching flame
- The Eastern Oregon Burned at Percival’s Wharf
A repair crew’s paint store caught fire aboard the steamship Eastern Oregon, forcing men to jump forty feet to the mudflats and killing one cook; the blaze threatened Percival’s Wharf before rain helped firefighters.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Day Northport Vanished
A single cigarette discarded in a tailor shop behind a saloon triggers a conflagration that consumes the entire business heart of Northport.
- The Rockets Turned Around: Tacoma's Fourth of July Went Up in a Sheet of Flame
A spark touched off the entire $500 pyrotechnic stock at Wright Park, driving rockets and bombs into a crowd of thousands and leaving women and children burned, trampled and briefly lost in the smoke.
- The Night Steilacoom's Records Burned
A Tuesday-night blaze destroyed the county auditor's office, forced the demolition of a neighboring building, and nearly took Anthony's Hotel—until soldiers joined the bucket brigade.
- The Great Dayton Fire: A Block of Ashes and a City’s Near Miss
On the night of April 2, 1882, flames consumed three blocks in downtown Dayton, Washington. While the town paid with its buildings, Seattle’s own fire department narrowly escaped disaster thanks to a single force pump.
- A Forty-Foot Leap From a Burning Lodging House
A predawn blaze in a Terrace Street rooming house forces immigrant laborers to jump from windows; one is likely fatally injured.
- The Slaughterhouse Inferno
A mysterious fire at a Seattle-area slaughterhouse leads to a harrowing escape as a man risks his life to release trapped livestock amidst a blaze that threatened the neighboring Union Stockyards.
- A Wall of Flame Along the Northern Pacific
Wildfires from South Prairie to the Cascades burned Lester's postoffice and homes, threatened snowsheds, and forced railroad crews to fight the flames with locomotives and water.
- A Father's Fatal Dash into the Flames
A Walla Walla warehouse manager dies after rushing into a burning building to save his children.
- 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.
- The Night the 'Mad House' Burned Down
A suspicious blaze destroys a landmark building in Seattle, forcing local citizens to scramble to save the nearby gas works from the encroaching flames.
- The Night Fremont's Industry Went Up in Smoke
When the Goddard Bros. foundry on Lake Union caught fire, the entire neighborhood rushed to help—but they couldn't beat the flames.
- 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.
- A Gas Well Roars to Life in the Sagebrush — and Yakima Comes to Watch
Sixty North Yakima men drove out to a wildcat well 14 miles north of Benton City, where escaping gas hissed like a locomotive, then lit into a 20-foot tower of flame — and raised fresh hopes of oil under the desert. Spoiler: the gas wasn't there in commercial quantities yet.
- Hot Ashes Nearly Burn Down Olympia’s Pride
A carelessly discarded batch of hot ashes smoldered for hours in the Capitol Steam Laundry before bursting into flame beneath the Olympia Hotel.
- A Lake Union Mill Went Up in Flames—Then Neighbors Saved the Lumber
A sash-and-door factory leased by George E. Dow & Co. was destroyed late Sunday night. The fire department could not save the building, but quick action kept a $3,000 lumber stock and the wharf from burning.
- Inferno at the Spokane Falls
Four mills destroyed and workers missing after a massive industrial fire consumes the riverfront.
- The Final Voyage of the Wildwood
A steamship captain recounts the harrowing night his vessel burned to the water’s edge while docked at Olympia.
- A Miraculous Escape for Seattle
A waterfront fire threatens to consume the business district, but the volunteer fire department saves the day.
- The Electrified Watchman
When the Seattle Electric Railway’s infrastructure turned the city into a hazard, a local watchman learned the hard way that his job required handling more than just time.
Also about this, in other words
- The Underground Fire Beneath Jackson Street
Firemen battle a persistent blaze burning within the tide-flat ashes beneath the electric light works.
- From the Ashes of the Great Seattle Fire
A desperate plea for resilience and community support in the days following the catastrophic 1889 fire that leveled the city’s business district.
- Volcano of Flame Threatens Columbia Slope Wheat Fields
A three-day prairie fire near Jump-Off Joe tested the mettle of local farmers, forcing them to plow firebreaks to save their harvest.
- The Great Fire of Seattle: A City in Ashes
As the dust settles on the inferno that consumed the heart of the young settlement, residents face the daunting task of rebuilding from nothing.
- The Charred Remains of a Pioneer: A Tragic Fire on Commercial Street
In the early days of Seattle, fire was the city's greatest enemy. On October 6, 1876, a blaze swept through the heart of the business district, claiming the life of a man named Hilder and destroying property near Jamison & Prescott.
- A Fire Trap in the Making
Carelessness with ashes and exploding lamps threaten to consume a downtown business block.
- Trapped in the Wreckage
A gas explosion in Spokane turns a bookstore into a furnace, leaving a woman to face her final moments in front of a helpless crowd.
- 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.