The Tinderbox Downtown
A small chimney fire at a local tin shop narrowly avoids tragedy, sparking a community call to clear flammable debris from Seattle's rooftops.
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.
Some stray sparks from an adjoining chimney caught in the dry mess on the roof of McAleer’s tin store this morning and a small blaze started, catching the shingles. A boy that noticed it gave the alarm at once and it was promptly extinguished with buckets. A few minutes more and there might have been a serious fire as the building is right in the heart of town. To prevent such an occurrence in the future would it not be advisable for property owners to clean the dry mass off the roofs of their buildings, as it is just like so much tinder.
“A few minutes more and there might have been a serious fire as the building is right in the heart of town.”
In 1878, Seattle was essentially a timber construction site waiting for a spark, a recurring anxiety for a growing city. The plea to manage 'tinder' on roofs echoes modern concerns about urban wildfire mitigation and building code enforcement in a densifying Pacific Northwest.
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