Midnight Fire Consumes Richmond Beach Landmark
A dog's frantic barking saved the lives of hotel guests as a $10,000 blaze swept through a Richmond Beach hotel in the early morning hours.
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 Bubb Hotel in Richmond Beach was completely destroyed by fire recently, with a property loss of $10,000. Two men were burned and narrowly escaped with their lives. It was an early morning fire, so guests were obliged to rush from their rooms in scanty attire, saving practically nothing. The barking of a dog awakened Deputy Sheriff W. J. Sweley, living opposite the hotel, and he ran down the main street, giving the alarm. He telephoned the Seattle fire department for assistance; one company of apparatus hurried to the scene; no lives were lost.
“Guests were obliged to rush from their rooms in scanty attire, saving practically nothing.”
Richmond Beach, now a neighborhood of Shoreline, was once a distinct community serviced by its own hotels and local law enforcement. This story captures the precarious nature of early 20th-century wood-frame construction and the vital role of local 'neighborhood watch'—even if that watch was a barking dog—in the era before ubiquitous emergency services.
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