Today's residents of the Pacific Northwest worry about wildfires burning our forests. But one summer in Washington it was our cities that burned.
In 1889, as the Territory of Washington was poised to become a state, a triple tragedy occurred. Seattle, Ellensburg and Spokane — all booming communities — burned to the ground in quick sequence, changing lives and the course of history.
First to go was Seattle, Washington’s biggest city with a fast-growing population soon to hit over 40,000. On June 6, 1889, at 2:30 in the afternoon, a pot of animal glue in a cabinetmaker’s shop at Front (now First Avenue) and Madison boiled over. A young Swedish immigrant, John E. Black, attempted to douse the ensuing flames, but the water simply spread the fire into sawdust. Soon, the entire business district in what is now Pioneer Square was aflame.