Nineteen Buildings Gone Before Breakfast

The business portion of Sidney, county seat of Kitsap county, is a heap of smouldering ruins. Fire broke out in the rear of T. J. Sweany's store shortly after 1 o'clock yesterday morning and raged with unrestrained fury for more than three hours. It ceased only when there were no more buildings to prey upon, and caused damages amounting to nearly $23,550.

The fire was discovered by C. T. Martin, who was visiting a sick friend. At 1 o'clock he heard a noise that sounded to him like the pattering of rain. He looked out of a window and saw flames bursting from the back addition to Sweany's store, next to the Findlay house, on Bay street. Martin ran to arouse the occupants of the hotel, but before he had gone half a block the entire back part of the grocery store was a mass of flames and a volume of dense smoke was pouring from an open window in the upper story. In a short time the alarm had spread over the entire town.

Sidney has no fire department, and the only way to fight the flames was with buckets. All efforts in this direction were at once seen to be ineffectual, and the citizens left the flames to their ravages and sought only to save the stocks of goods.

There was but a slight wind blowing, and the flames spread in both directions, communicating on one side to the Findlay house, a three-story frame structure running from street to street, and on the other side to a one-story vacant building owned by C. S. Preston, of Seattle. Within thirty minutes of the discovery of the fire the flames had crossed the street to Corbett's drug store, in the middle of the block, and from this new starting point ranged both ways.

By this time additional efforts were being made to stay the progress of the flames. The bucket brigades, directed by W. F. Howe, Walter M. Wheeler, William Sutton, C. F. Martin, George E. Miller and D. J. Davis, commenced a vigorous fight, one party at the corner of Sidney and Bay streets, to keep the fire back from the store of G. E. Miller & Co. and the law office of J. B. Yakey, and another party in front of the M. E. church, facing Prospect street and immediately opposite the Findlay house. Blankets soaked with water were hung over the buildings and water was rapidly passed to men stationed on the roofs. The fight in both places was successful, although the church was badly scorched. The store was provided on the roof with barrels of water, and to these is probably due the arresting of the conflagration. Had the fire not been stopped at this point it would undoubtedly have communicated through intervening buildings to Wheeler's sawmill and destroyed every business house in that part of the town.

During the fight in front of his store Mr. Miller was overcome by heat and excitement. A bucket of water was dashed over him and he was brought to in a little while. He was the only person injured by the fire.

By 4 o'clock the flames had consumed all the buildings within reach, numbering nineteen, fourteen on the south side of Bay street and five on the north side. There was nothing except ruins in what was before the heart of Sidney.

The burned district comprises an area of 320 feet by 360 feet. The last building to go down was the postoffice, on the corner of Bay and Frederick streets, the roof of which fell in at about 3:30 o'clock. Everything within the building, including the mails, the city records in a large safe and the jewelry stock of Alexander Patterson, was saved except a small newspaper mail, which could not readily be carried away. Postmaster Cline removed the office to E. T. Connell's building east of the church on the street above.

It is thought that the fire would not have crossed to the north side of Bay street had it not been for a canvas awning on Crosby's drug store. The awning was drawn close up against the front of the building, and when once on fire quickly communicated the blaze to the store.

The loss to the city amounts to $1,000, and is confined to the bulkhead on Prospect street and to the Bay street planking, which was so badly damaged that it will have to be replaced.

All the books and papers in the law office of Senator E. L. Brown were saved; Druggist Crosby saved all his stock; Thomas Ross, abstractor, lost nothing, and part of the furniture and fixtures of other buildings on the north side of the street was carried to places of safety. The heaviest losers perhaps are Henry E. Hunt, proprietor of the Findlay house, and A. W. Robinson, neither of whom carried any insurance, their losses respectively footing up $1,850 and $1,900. Mr. Robinson lost a stock of groceries as well as a two-story building.

The third story of the Findlay house was general headquarters for secret societies, and contained the paraphernalia of Fort Orchard Lodge, No. 98, F. and A. M.; Sidney Lodge, No. 85, K. of P.; Commodore Foote Post, No. 84, G. A. R., and a lodge of the A. O. U. W. just formed. The other organizations lost their charters, except the Masons; but members of the Grand Army post succeeded in carrying out an historic battle flag that had gone through the civil war. The Knights of Pythias suffered most severely, their loss amounting to not less than $300. The families of Harry E. Hunt and James Day lost all their worldly possessions and have been provided for by sympathetic neighbors.

Sidney contains between 600 and 800 people, and the fire is a calamity; but they announce their intention to make the best of it. The intention is to rebuild as soon as possible, and two contracts looking to that end have already been let, one by Mr. Cline and the other by Mr. Robinson.

The origin of the fire is a mystery. Sweany's store, where it broke out, held a stock of goods that had been run down, and the building had been closed for two weeks. The fire must have started either from spontaneous combustion or incendiARISM. Many incline to the latter belief.

J. B. Yakey, Republican candidate for prosecuting attorney, expressed himself forcibly, saying: "It's no use to fight a fire like that with buckets. We must have something more effective. Moreover, if we were provided properly with apparatus we would secure a needed reduction in insurance rates."

M. E. Garrison said: "We must build up the town again, as Seattle did."