The Hotel Oriental Arson Mystery
An inquest reveals that a fatal Seattle hotel fire was deliberately set with coal oil, as a grieving city searches for the culprit behind the death of Erie Johnson.
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.
It will be remembered that at the burning of the Hotel Oriental on Thursday morning, swathed by the fumes of smoke, Erie Johnson, an occupant of the building, died soon after being removed from the burning structure. Facts deemed to be good and sufficient by the Coroner led him to order an inquest held. He appointed Dr. Baker, assisted by Dr. Minor, to make a post-mortem examination of the remains of Johnson. The inquest was held at Justice Hill’s office. A jury was summoned by Constable Thornton. Some twenty odd witnesses were examined, and the entire day and evening was occupied in hearing the case, and the verdict of the jury will not be rendered until Monday. Dr. Baker testified that he found from the post-mortem examination that Erie Johnson came to his death from asphyxia, or gas poisoning. It was clearly shown during the inquest that the fire was the work of an incendiary; that on the night the fire took place a five-gallon can of coal oil was taken from a tank and into a room in the northwest corner of the building, and with the contents of the can, the floor and bedding in the room were saturated with coal oil and lighted. The testimony at this point was very voluminous and had a tendency to fix the crime securely. The jury will again meet on Monday.
“It was clearly shown during the inquest that the fire was the work of an incendiary.”
Public safety and fire codes in Seattle have evolved drastically since 1885, when wood-frame 'fire traps' were common in the downtown core. The tragedy at the Hotel Oriental serves as a grim reminder of a time when the city's rapid, unregulated growth made every boarding house a potential hazard.
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