The 'Stink Factory' Meets a Fiery End

The works of the Seattle Fertilizing Company on the Grant Street bridge, about a block south of Claussen & Sweeney's bottling works, were burned between 1 and 2 o'clock this morning. The plant was a public nuisance and was commonly known in the vicinity as 'the stink factory.' It had been complained of as a nuisance by William Leek, an adjoining property owner, and only last Friday night Alderman Jordan gave notice to the council that he would introduce an ordinance for its removal and for the licensing of such establishments. The ordinance was not as quick acting, however, as the element of fire, which, while destroying in the neighborhood of $6,000 worth of property, pretty effectually settled the removal of the noisome nuisance. The building was a one-and-a-half-story frame structure occupying a wharf between the Grant Street bridge and the Northern Pacific railroad track. About 12:30, a stranger passing along the bridge saw smoke and notified H. Huts, who was employed in the bottling factory. When Huts saw the fire, it had taken possession of the upper half-story and was spreading a stench that would have put a Whitechapel sewer to shame. Firemen worked inside until the hot corrugated iron roof fell onto their hoses, forcing them to retreat. The neighbors were rejoiced over the fire, as they had suffered a great deal of annoyance on account of the factory.