Tragedy at the Boiler Shop
A workplace accident at the Northern Pacific shops claims the life of a father, leaving his family behind.
Frank Hooachit, a workman employed on the new boiler shop for the Northern Pacific Railway company in South Tacoma, was instantly killed this morning. The workmen were putting some heavy planks across a staging when one fell. They yelled to the workmen below to get out of the way. Hooachit tried to slip and fall and the plank struck him on the neck. When his fellow workmen picked him up he was dead. Deceased leaves a wife and three children.
“The workmen were putting some heavy planks across a staging when one fell.”
This industrial tragedy highlights the extreme dangers inherent in the labor force that built Tacoma’s rail infrastructure. Workplace safety regulations were non-existent or ignored, leaving families to face sudden economic and personal devastation without the modern protections we rely on today.
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