The Fire Chief’s Dangerous Close Call
Seattle's fire chief cheated death twice in one night, plunging through a burning saloon’s skylight while fighting a blaze on the waterfront.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Chief Kellogg had two narrow escapes from death yesterday morning at 4 o'clock while attending the Reception saloon fire on Railroad Avenue. In the saloon was a bowling alley, and directly overhead, extending along the roof the length of the alley, was a narrow skylight. When Chief Kellogg arrived at the fire, a portion of the roof was burning furiously, and the firemen, led by the chief, immediately mounted to the roof and attacked the flames. The chief ran across the roof to give an order, and the dense smoke blinding him, he stepped through the skylight. He caught himself at his armpits and did not go through into the burning saloon. He soon extricated himself, and, not thinking that the skylight extended the entire length of the house, he immediately went through the glass again about twenty feet from where he first fell in. Fortunately, he again caught himself and escaped serious injury.
“The chief ran across the roof to give an order, and the dense smoke blinding him, he stepped through the skylight.”
Railroad Avenue (modern Alaskan Way) was the industrial heartbeat of 19th-century Seattle, defined by saloons, warehouses, and the constant threat of fire. Today, the waterfront is undergoing a massive transformation to reconnect the city to the Sound, moving far beyond the era of wooden structures and open skylights that defined the early fire department's challenges.
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