Heroic Bucket Brigade Battles Stanwood Inferno
A devastating fire ravages the business district of Stanwood, leaving the community to fight flames with nothing but ladders and willpower.
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.
On Tuesday night, a major fire in Stanwood, Snohomish County, destroyed nearly an entire block of buildings. Starting in the Stanwood Hotel, the flames quickly spread to the neighboring saloon and Armstrong's Hall due to a strong southerly breeze. Citizens worked as heroes, forming bucket brigades and using axes to tear apart burning structures. While the Lutheran church and several stores were lost, the community managed to save the Melby hotel by keeping the building doused with water from a nearby slough as the wind shifted. The loss is estimated at $26,100, with only partial insurance coverage.
“The log boom men, with their calked boots, ran over the steep roof on the charred shingles and poured water wherever necessary.”
In the late 19th century, wooden-built frontier towns were exceptionally vulnerable to fire. This story highlights how quickly the economic heart of a small Washington town could be erased, a vulnerability that led to the development of modern fire codes and regional fire districts.
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