A Close Call on Yesler Avenue
A fire sparked by a porter's clumsy accident in a saloon basement is extinguished by a quick-thinking fire commissioner before it could threaten the neighborhood.
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 slight fire, causing perhaps $200 loss, occurred at 7 o'clock last evening in the basement of the Seattle saloon on Yesler avenue and Post street, just below the Yesler building. It was caused by a porter who, in handling a case of petroleum, dropped it. The case broke, and the oil caught fire and exploded. What threatened to be a severe fire was promptly checked by Fire Commissioner John I. Kahaley, who happened to be in the alley at the rear of the building. He connected a hose with the Seattle Steam Heat and Power Company's pump and put the blaze out before the fire engines arrived.
“What threatened for a time to be a severe fire was promptly checked by Fire Commissioner John I. Kahaley.”
Yesler Avenue and Post Street remains the historic heart of Pioneer Square. In 1892, fire was the city's greatest existential fear, explaining why a fire commissioner personally manning a hose was front-page news.
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