A Home Lost to Fire in the Growing City
A vacant house on the corner of Hyde and Lite streets is destroyed by fire, leaving a young couple who had only recently moved in with nothing.
A small, one-and-a-half-story frame cottage at the corner of Hyde and Lite streets, owned by Mrs. Swanson (now in Los Angeles), was destroyed by fire this morning between 1 and 2 o'clock. Mr. T. Kebey, a neighbor, saw smoke coming from the roof and ran to the house to waken the inmates. He pounded on the door but received no answer. In the meantime, the flames burst through the roof and were seen by W. F. Hayes, who turned in an alarm from box 71. The apparatus responded, but there was trouble in getting water. The house had been vacant for some time, but last Saturday, a young couple commenced to move in. Their goods were in boxes which were in the house, unpacked. All were destroyed. The cause of the fire is not known.
“The house had been vacant for some time, but last Saturday, a young couple commenced to move in.”
While historic streets like these may have been renamed or redeveloped through Seattle's various regrades, the sudden loss of a home to fire remains a poignant, recurring tragedy in the history of a growing, wooden city.
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