Spokane Falls Devastated by Fire
Following the Great Seattle Fire, the sister city of Spokane Falls faces its own catastrophic conflagration, with millions in damages.
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.
Our sister city Spokane Falls has suffered a calamity no less severe, proportionately, than that which recently devastated Seattle. The whole business district is in ruins, the direct loss being not less than seven million dollars. The fire burned until it exhausted itself. As we of Seattle have just passed through a similar experience, we know how terrible and heart-rending it is and how to sympathize with those who have suffered. However, the conditions which made the city exist now as heretofore, and will make a greater and stronger city than that just destroyed. Relief is already coming, with aid sent yesterday of thousands of dollars and trainloads of provisions.
“The fire burned until it exhausted itself... but there is no need for the citizens of Spokane Falls to despair.”
Spokane’s rapid post-fire rebuilding in the 1890s was a defining moment for Eastern Washington, similar to Seattle's own reconstruction effort. This story illustrates the deep ties between the state's urban centers in the face of frontier disaster.
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