The Insurance Crisis After the Great Fires
A look at the crushing financial toll of the catastrophic fires sweeping through Washington Territory in 1889.
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 losses from fire this year have been extraordinary. Although there was an almost entire lack of water supply, nothing was ever known as disastrous proportionally as the great fires that have desolated Seattle, Ellensburg, and Spokane. The losses paid on the Pacific Coast by insurance companies during the last half-year have been greater than any whole year hitherto, exceeding them by many millions of dollars. The total insurance losses in Washington Territory alone since and including the Seattle fire amount to $6,346,811. Previous to that about $64,000, making a total for the year of $6,411,091. The aggregate loss to property by fire in Washington Territory since June 1st amounts to the enormous sum of $28,000,000. The fire record for this year so far has no previous parallel. From the above figures it will be seen that the losses to insurance companies in this territory since January 1st, 1889, amount to nearly fifteen times the premiums of 1888.
“The fire record for this year so far has no previous parallel, and especially is this the case in Washington territory.”
In 1889, Washington’s urban centers were built primarily of wood, leaving them highly vulnerable to the conflagrations that defined the era. Today, while building codes have evolved to mitigate such risks, the insurance crisis caused by fire and climate volatility remains a recurring economic stressor for the Pacific Northwest.
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