A House on the Bluff: Fire Lights Up the City as the Engines Fail to Arrive
The lakeside home of E. J. Jeffries burns to the ground while the fire department is too far away to save it — a blaze visible for miles across Seattle.
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 residence of E. J. Jeffries, near Lake Washington, was totally destroyed by fire last evening. The house was located on high ground near the bluff at about the southern end of Dreiel avenue, and its commanding position made the fire visible for a long distance, as it lighted up the whole city.
An alarm was telephoned to the fire department at 3:15, and several pieces of apparatus started for the place, but the distance was so great that they could not reach it, and the only assistance was from members of the fire department in carrying out two trunks and some things that prevented the rest of the furniture from being saved.
The house was of brick, one-story high, with a shingled roof. The property was insured, but for what amount could not be learned last evening.
Mr. Jeffries' theory of the origin of the fire was that the wind sent live sparks from the furnace against the woodwork in the basement. Only a short time before he had cleaned out the furnace, and as the fire started at the opposite side of the basement, it could only be accounted for by sparks from the flue.
A chemical engine got mired in trying to approach the house and an extra team was required to extricate it. The rest of the apparatus was turned back.
“Its commanding position made the fire visible for a long distance, as it lighted up the whole city.”
Before hydrants and paved roads, a home on the bluffs near Lake Washington lay beyond the reach of Seattle's fire engines — exactly the kind of loss that drove the era's push for better water mains and fire service. The 'commanding position' that made Jeffries' house so desirable is also what doomed it.
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