Major Walla Walla Lumber Yard Destroyed by Suspicious Fire
A massive blaze tore through the Whitehouse-Crimmins planing mill and lumber yards early Sunday morning, leaving $75,000 in damages and sparking a local controversy over fire department performance.
The story, cleaned up
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One of the most destructive fires that have visited Walla Walla in recent years early yesterday morning destroyed the planing mill and lumber yard of the Whitehouse-Crimmins company. Mr. Whitehouse this morning estimated the company's loss at $75,000 with insurance of but $14,450. The fire, which is believed to be of incendiary origin, started at 1:15 AM in a pile of lumber on the west side of Third Street and spread rapidly to consume the entire complex, including the planing mill on the east side of the street. Local residents criticized the fire department's handling of the blaze, with reports circulating that engines were not in working order. The City Council is expected to investigate these claims. Despite the total loss, the owners have already begun planning for a new plant and have received offers of assistance from Mayor Hunt.
“The blaze started about 1:15 yesterday morning in a small building and pile of lumber... and was undoubtedly of incendiary origin.”
This 1903 disaster highlights the vulnerability of early Walla Walla’s industrial wooden infrastructure to fire and the resulting civic tension between business owners and the municipal government. The site of this fire, once a hub of the lumber industry, reminds us how quickly the city's economic landscape could vanish in the face of inadequate fire suppression and industrial risk.
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