The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-11
BURNS 6 BLOCKS.
Fire Sweeps Over 90 Acres of
Land in Seattle.
Loss 81 100000 and 500 People
Homeless.
A HURRICANE RACED.
Battling the Efforts of the Fire
Department.
City Is Finally Saved by Coming
of Rain.

seattle. WdSn-. June LII II liA1%
broke ont on the northern water front
during a hurricane last night was car
ried by the wind to a district to the
eastward thickly covered by wooden
buildings and in a short time 20 acres
were ablaze, causing a loss of $1,000
900 and driving 500 people homeless
into the street.
The fire, starting at Railroad avenue
and Battery streets, destroyed all the
buildings on six city blocks. and picked
out a wooden house here and there in
the surrounding district not entirely
fire swept When the flames were at
their height burning brands set fire to
houses several blocks from the main
fire Alarming reports of loss of life
were circulated, but so far as can be
learned, there were no fatalities.
Three persons are known to have
been seriously hurt, and many firemen
were slightly injured.
Sixty horses were burned in a stable
on Railroad avenue. The district had
long been considered a dangerous risk
most of the light wooden buildings
carried little or no risks. Just as the
fireman had begun to despair of saw
ing a large and populous area east or
Second avenue, the wind suddenly
abated and a brisk rain began to fall
materially aiding the fire fighters. The
district entirely destroyed consists Of
the blocks bounded on the west by
Railroad avenue, on the east by Sec
ond avenue, on the south by Battery
street and on the north bv Vine street.
The largest buildings burned were
the Galbraith-Bacon warehouses,
which covered the entire block bound
ed by Railroad and Elliott avenues
and Battery and Wall streets. They
were erected last year at cost of
100000. Another large building de-
stroyed was that of the Puget Sound
Shot Metal works, just across Wall
street from the Galbraith warehouses.
Concrete Building Destroyed.
On the west side of First avenue,
between Bell and Wall streets, stor-
age warehouse filled with rubber in
sulated cables and electrical material
made so hot a blaze that it was i'm
possible to get near it.
The Glenarchy apartments, a three
story brick structure. recently COM
pleted and the Wallfirst hotel between
Western avenue and First street on
Wall street were also burned. The
latter was a concrete building and
after the fire had swept through it.
dynamite was used to raze the totter-
ing walls.
Most of the buildings we're one, two
as saloons, dwellings and lodging
houses. Many people rushed out in
their night clothes, not having time to
dress.
All the private dwellings in the
neighborhood outside the danger zone
were opened to the refugees, but some
families spent the night guarding their
belongings in the open. Stockades were
made of trunks and furniture and
blanket7 were used as tents to keep off
the rain.
The Pacific hospital at First avenue
and Vine streets. directly opposite the
hottest part of the fire, was in great
danger. Patients were removed to the
city hospital. The police stopped sew
eral automobiles carrying parties Of
society people to see the fire AMI
pressed them into service of removing
patients.
After all the patients had been re-
moved the hospital caught fire, but
was extinguished before much dam
age was done. There was no panic
during the removal of the patients.
Persons reported missing last might
during the fire turre up rapidly today
and it is, believed there was no loss of
hInan life. Mono of the half dozen per-
sons injured was seriously hurt. The
patients of Pacific hospital, who are
scattered among the other hospital Of
the city, were not injured by the trans
fer
There IS no salvage whatever in the
six burned blocks. The evicted faE1i-
lies have found shelter. The swarm of
single mer who poured out of the wood
t. easures with them and are settled in
other wooden lodging houses, which
abcunded in the northern part of the
water front.