The Great Olympia Fire: How a City Rallied Against the Flames
When an August blaze threatened to consume Olympia's business district, the community, including local women, rushed to save the heart of the town.
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 the morning of August 8, 1877, a fire broke out in a China wash-house in Olympia, coming very near to consuming the entire business part of the town. The fire spread to an old two-story stable built in 1851, a beer hall, a saloon, a grocery, and finally, the brick building of Barnes Bank on the corner of the alley. The fire did not cross Main Street, owing to the heavy growth of maple trees, the foliage of which protected the buildings behind them. Buildings on the rear side were all destroyed, including the residence of Thomas Prather near Washington Street. The Pacific House narrowly escaped destruction. Total loss was estimated at $26,000, with $8,500 in insurance. An eye-witness noted that the fire engines were out of water and became clogged, and the men became excited, but the citizens rallied in a mass. The ladies came forward with as much alacrity as the men and greatly aided them in wetting adjacent buildings. If the old Pacific Hotel had caught on fire, the flames would have gone the entire length of the town below the bank. The government archives were in the upper story of the bank building, where Gov. Ferry and Secretary Owings have their offices. The books and papers were all saved.
“The ladies came forward with as much alacrity as the men and greatly aided them in wetting adjacent buildings.”
This 1877 account captures the pre-modern, decentralized nature of firefighting in Washington Territory, where the resilience of the community—and the strategic placement of trees—served as the only buffer against total ruin. It serves as a reminder of how quickly a boomtown's entire economic infrastructure could vanish before the era of professional, municipal fire departments.
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