Late Night Blaze at California Livery Stable
A quick-acting officer and a lucky discovery prevented a potential catastrophe at a local Seattle barn.
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.
The California livery stable on South Eighth street, of which William Behring is proprietor, caught fire about 11 o'clock last night. If not for the fact that Police Officer Milligan discovered the fire as soon as it broke out and promptly turned in an alarm, the building would probably have been destroyed. Behring and his barn man were asleep in the building at the time, and the officer awakened them before turning in the alarm. There were fourteen head of horses in the barn, but these and the wagons were all gotten out promptly. There was very little in the loft, so the fire did not spread as rapidly as it otherwise would have, but when the fire department arrived, the flames had broken out through the roof. Inside of five minutes the fire was practically out. The damage will not exceed $100. The origin of the fire is a mystery, though Mr. Behring suggested a tramp might have gained an entrance to the loft and left matches lying around.
“The origin of the fire is a mystery, and the only explanation Mr. Behring could give of it was that some tramp might have gained an entrance to the loft.”
Livery stables were the nerve centers of the city before the age of the automobile, occupying the same urban footprint as today's parking garages or ride-share hubs. The constant danger of fire in these wooden structures was a persistent civic anxiety for early Seattle.
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