A Stable Fire Claims Three Horses
A failure in the fire alarm system leads to the tragic loss of three horses in a downtown stable.
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.
Fire broke out last evening in a small stable located on the alley between Pike and Union, Fourth and Fifth streets, and three horses belonging to Conrad Johnson, of the Queen City Dairy Company, were burned to death. There was some delay in turning in the alarm, as the auxiliary boxes at the Snoqualmie were not in working order and the key to the box could not be found quickly. R. Merchant and Horace Olyndon entered the stable and tried to get the horses out. One of the animals was untied, but was crazed and would do nothing but kick and strike at his would-be rescuers. He was left to his fate with the other two.
“One of the animals was untied, but was crazed and would do nothing but kick and strike at his would-be rescuers.”
While horses are no longer kept in stables between Pike and Union, the incident points to the era's reliance on fragile infrastructure—the non-functional fire alarm box—a theme that remains relevant in modern city management and disaster preparedness.
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