An Act of Solidarity in the Tenderloin
A fire deliberately set in Walla Walla's Chinatown was extinguished by a local woman, thwarting an attempt to destroy the neighborhood.
An attempt to fire Chinatown last night at 9 o'clock was frustrated by the prompt action of a female resident of the tenderloin who was attracted to the blaze and rushed out with two buckets of water. Blazing rags, well saturated with oil, were thrown among some boards at the back end of a building. Chinamen who were in the vicinity say that the fire starters ran out the back way and disappeared. The men say two attempts were made. The first time the rags failed to ignite and a second attempt was necessary. As the rags blazed up brightly they were pitched into the timbers and the men ran.
“The blaze was frustrated by the prompt action of a female resident of the tenderloin who was attracted to the blaze and rushed out with two buckets of water.”
This act of intervention by a neighbor in the tenderloin highlights the tenuous nature of safety for marginalized residents in early 20th-century Walla Walla. It echoes a long history of anti-Chinese exclusion in the Pacific Northwest, where arson was often used as a weapon of displacement against immigrant communities.
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