Fire Consumes Kiona's Commercial Heart
A blaze in Kiona leaves the town's primary store, hotel, and post office in ashes, with guests narrowly escaping the inferno.
Fire destroyed the Kelso Brothers company store and hotel, the postoffice, and four warehouses in Kiona, with the loss estimated at $20,000 and only partial insurance coverage. The hotel and store contents are a total loss. Several persons sleeping in the hotel had a close call as the blaze spread through the timber structures. The origin of the fire remains unknown.
“Several persons sleeping in the hotel had a close call.”
Kiona and nearby Benton City are remnants of this era's rapid development. The loss of a central store and hotel in a town like Kiona was a defining catastrophe, representing the literal vanishing of a community's social and commercial hub.
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