1889 Spokane Falls Fire Destroys Nearly Forty Blocks
A catastrophic fire destroys thirty blocks of Spokane's business district, echoing the recent destruction in 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.
SPOKANE FALLS, Aug. 4.—Fire broke out in a lodging house on Railroad Avenue at 6 p.m. and has gotten beyond the control of the firemen. The city is doomed. Already two blocks of business houses are gone, and the fire is jumping the streets and traveling rapidly. The fire broke out in a frame block near the Northern Pacific depot. The water pressure was very weak, and the flames spread rapidly, sweeping the entire block in less than half an hour. A high wind sprang up soon after the fire started, filling the air with burning timbers and starting fires in several adjacent blocks. The entire business portion of the city, covering nearly forty blocks, was destroyed. It is impossible to estimate the loss at this hour, but it is placed all the way from thirty to fifty millions. The city will be rebuilt as speedily as men and money can do it.
“The city is doomed. Already two blocks of business houses are gone, and the fire is jumping the streets and traveling rapidly.”
Spokane's 1889 fire occurred just months after the Great Seattle Fire, marking a summer of profound vulnerability for wooden frontier cities. Today, these events stand as the foundational trauma that forced the adoption of modern urban building codes and fire safety infrastructure across the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.