Suspicious Blaze Consumes South Bend Building
A vacant commercial building in South Bend, Washington, burns to the ground under circumstances police suspect were intentional.
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.
SOUTH BEND, Feb. 17.—At 3 o'clock this morning a vacant store building on Broadway was discovered to be on fire. An alarm was given, but half an hour passed before a stream could be thrown by the fire engine. The fire had by this time gained such headway that the building burned to the ground in spite of all efforts to save it. The building was the property of W. H. Horr, of Tacoma, and was insured for $700, its full value. The fire is believed to have been of incendiary origin.
“The fire is believed to have been of incendiary origin.”
Insurance fraud via arson was a common blight in the Pacific Northwest frontier era. Small towns like South Bend were particularly vulnerable to such fires, which decimated historical centers before modern fire codes were established.
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