The North Seattle Arson Plot
A fire deliberately set with coal-soaked furniture and walls leads to the arrest of three tenants in a North Seattle residence.
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.
As a result of a fire at 316 Howard street Friday night at 11:30 o'clock, two women and a man—Mrs. Sophia Kurth, her brother, Charles Hurrmann, and his wife, Annis Hurrmann—were arrested on warrants sworn out by Fire Chief Kellogg charging them with arson. It was 11:30 o'clock when an excited individual telephoned a fire alarm to headquarters from seventh and Howell streets. Firemen burst open the doors and soon put out the flames, which had been confined to the sitting-room downstairs. The total damage to the house will not exceed $150 and the damage to the furniture $100. The smell of coal oil was everywhere. Up the walls, on the wainscoting, the oil had been thrown and the carpets were saturated with it. In every room, both upstairs and down, oil had been spilled on the furniture. The building, owned by D. J. Bensenhoffer, was rented to Mrs. Sophia Kurth. She sub-rented the upper story to her brother, Hurrmann, and his wife. Mrs. Kurth had insured her furniture for $650, and Hurrmann had recently taken out a policy for $450 on his furniture, alleging that his household effects were worth $600. The trio refused to talk and will be arraigned before Judge Rivers.
“The smell of coal oil was everywhere. Up the walls, on the wainscoting, the oil had been thrown and the carpets were saturated with it.”
Insurance fraud and housing instability remain perennial issues in Seattle, though the 'coal oil' methods of 1892 have been replaced by more modern varieties of arson. The intersection of Seventh and Howell is now home to dense high-rise development in the heart of downtown, a stark contrast to the small wooden residences of the 1890s.
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