The Great Tacoma Tailor Shop Fire
A late-night inferno destroys a popular tailor shop and nearby boarding house, highlighting the volatile fire risks in the booming city.
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.
At 2 o'clock this morning, a fire broke out in the store of J.E. Husbands, a popular tailor on Pacific Avenue. The fire started in the rear of the shop and spread rapidly. The local fire department responded promptly, but the wooden structures of the building were already well-involved in flames. The fire quickly spread to a nearby boarding house. The total loss is estimated to be about $4,000, with little insurance to cover the damages. A man employed in the shop, who slept in the rear, narrowly escaped by jumping from a back window. The origin of the fire remains a mystery, though investigators are looking into the shop’s heating equipment.
“The fire spread to a nearby boarding house, destroying the greater portion of his furniture.”
Early Tacoma, like Seattle, was built primarily of wood, making major urban conflagrations an ever-present threat for small business owners. This report captures the precarious nature of 'boom town' entrepreneurship before modern fire codes.
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