Nightmare at the Notion Store
A shopkeeper narrowly escapes his building as a pre-dawn blaze tears through a landmark business in Walla Walla.
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.
At about 2 o'clock this morning, fire was discovered in the Straight building, occupied by Osborn's notion store, the roof being well ablaze at the time. An alarm was turned in and the department responded promptly, losing no time in gaining control of the flames. The principal damage was to the goods by water and the roof of the building by fire. This is the second fire that has occurred in the same building during the occupancy of Mr. Osborn, the first having occurred some two years ago. At that time, however, Capt. Straight had carried no insurance on the building, and the loss in his case is total. He has not decided whether he will repair the building or remove it entirely. Mr. Osborn estimates his loss at $4,000, covered by insurance to the amount of $2,000, in the Pioneer Mutual, of Seattle. The damage to the goods by water is heavy, the chemicals causing everything touched to turn color and become unsaleable. Capt. Straight had notified Osborn to vacate recently, and was expecting to have the building unoccupied shortly. He estimates his loss at $400. Mr. Osborn was sleeping in the building when the fire was discovered, and was one of the first to realize that the roof was burning over his head. An alarm was turned in by other parties before he could get out of the building.
“Mr. Osborn was sleeping in the building when the fire was discovered, and was one of the first to realize that the roof was burning over his head.”
Fires in older, unreinforced buildings were a constant threat to Walla Walla's early commercial growth. While today's safety codes have drastically reduced the risk of these catastrophic losses, the vulnerability of small business tenants to building conditions remains a perennial civic struggle.
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