The Pioneer Drug Store Fire
A mysterious warehouse fire tests the mettle of the local fire department and leaves a shopkeeper with a significant, uninsured loss.
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.
A mysterious fire in the warehouse of the Pioneer drug store at No. 6 East Main street at 10 o'clock this morning for a time threatened the destruction of the store, the Paine building adjoining, and numerous wood sheds and outhouses surrounding the seat of the blaze. While resulting in damage not to exceed $1,500, the blaze was one of the most vicious and baffling the department has had to deal with in months. The warehouse, which is situated in the rear and apart from the store proper, is a one-story brick and was stocked with inflammable material, including several cases of gasoline, paints, oils, and packing material. The fire was detected by E. L. Smalley, proprietor of the drug store, who noticed smoke sifting in the back door. He rushed out into the warehouse to find a pile of boxes and packet in the southeast corner all ablaze. Mr. Smalley is utterly at a loss to account for the fire. He estimates his loss at $1,000, mostly on household furniture, which he had stored temporarily in the warehouse and on which he carried no insurance.
“The blaze was one of the most vicious and baffling the department has had to deal with in months.”
Fires in downtown storage areas and warehouses were a constant threat to historic wooden and brick commercial centers like Walla Walla. Today, urban fire codes and building inspections have drastically reduced the likelihood of such 'baffling' blazes, though the city still grapples with the tension between preserving historic structures and modernizing safety standards.
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