Sidney Hotel Lost to Afternoon Blaze
A rapid-fire inferno destroys a town landmark, underscoring the dangers of early Seattle-area settlements lacking municipal fire suppression.
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.
Fire at Sidney destroyed the Sidney hotel, owned by Dr. J. S. Bridenstine and leased by Irvine & Simmons, along with the office building of J. B. Yakey and Will H. Reynolds and the residence of W. H. Madden at noon yesterday. The flames broke out shortly after 12 o'clock over the kitchen of the hotel, and, fanned by a fresh breeze, rapidly enveloped the whole building. The town having no fire apparatus, a bucket brigade was organized by citizens and members of the Democratic county convention, which was in session nearby, but the fire had gained such a strong hold it was impossible to stop it. Within half an hour the hotel was in ruins. Very little furniture was saved, but the nearby new brick hotel under construction escaped with only a scorching.
“The town having no fire apparatus, a bucket brigade was organized... but the fire had gained such a strong hold that it was impossible to get water on it.”
Sidney is the historical name for Port Orchard. Like many small towns in 1892, it relied on bucket brigades rather than a fire department, a vulnerability that frequently wiped out entire business blocks in the Pacific Northwest during the timber-fueled growth of the late 19th century.
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