A Neighborhood Blaze
A house burns down on Madison street while the owners are at church, revealing systemic failures in emergency response time.
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.
The fire department was called out last night at about 10 o'clock for a fire in two one-and-a-half story frame residences at the corner of Madison and Kenney streets. The one occupied by John Helm was destroyed, together with the greater part of the contents and the other, occupied by W. E. Williams, was damaged. The Helms went to church and left a fire in the sitting room stove. When Helm found out the state of affairs he ran all the way to the James street power house and tried to telephone to the fire department, but through some mistake did not get it, so he ran down to chemical No. 2 and gave the alarm. Chief Hunt is of the opinion that if the alarm had been sent in from the nearest box, which is only two blocks distant, at least ten minutes would have been saved.
“Chief Hunt is of the opinion that if the alarm had been sent in from the nearest box, which is only two blocks distant, at least ten minutes would have been saved.”
This incident highlights the early fragility of Seattle's wood-frame residential neighborhoods and the reliance on rudimentary fire-reporting systems, a precursor to the modern fire codes and rapid response infrastructure established after the Great Seattle Fire.
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