Fire Leaves South Seattle Helpless
A devastating blaze destroyed two grocery stores and a local lodge room because the buildings sat just one block beyond the reach of the city water mains.
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.
A fire at Colfax and Denny streets in South Seattle last night caused the destruction of two grocery stores with their stocks, two society lodge rooms, and the office of a physician, resulting in a total loss of about $10,000. It was about 5:45 o'clock when the fire was discovered in the southeast corner of the southernmost of the two buildings. An alarm was immediately sent out, and chemical engine No. 1 and engine No. 3 responded. On arriving at the scene, however, the firemen found themselves utterly powerless, as the location was just one square below the end of the 4-inch main, the terminus of the city water system. The north building was occupied by E. W. Small as a grocery store. The building occupied as a grocery by B. R. Bailey and F. W. Bailey, under the firm name of Bailey & Co., was owned by Hugo Graff. The Brewery Workmen's Union met in Crystal hall on the second floor, and the South Seattle Lodge of Good Templars, No. 54, met in the Bailey building.
“On arriving at the scene, however, the latter found itself utterly powerless, as the location was just one square below the end of the 4-inch main, the terminus of the city water system.”
This 1892 disaster highlights a perennial urban struggle: infrastructure expansion failing to keep pace with rapid settlement. Today, Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between municipal services and the development of the city's fringes.
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