Firefighters Save Montesano from Total Destruction
A catastrophic fire nearly leveled the town's business district before new water mains were put to the ultimate test.
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 most disastrous fire ever known in Montesano visited that place last Friday. It commenced about 9 o'clock while a large number of citizens were at Robinson's circus, and had it not been for the new waterworks, although as yet incomplete, all the business portion of Montesano would have been burned. The fire commenced in the building on lower Main street, occupied by Bowers' drug store and Kellennan, the jeweler. Had the water been turned on in the start the fire would have been confined to one building. After the water came, the fire was kept in control and did not spread beyond the buildings ablaze. Seven buildings in all were destroyed, with total losses estimated at $25,000.
“Had the water been turned on in the start the fire would have been confined to one building.”
Infrastructure investments—like the water-works that saved downtown Montesano—are often invisible until they are the only thing standing between a community and disaster. The struggle to modernize public utilities remains a central tension in the growth of Grays Harbor cities.
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