by Michael Totten

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: February 25, 2010

On the beautiful afternoon of June 6, 1889, a young woodworking assistant named John Bachs accidentally allowed hot glue to boil over onto an old wooden floor soaked in turpentine and covered in wood chips. Immediately he dumped a bucket of water on the flames, but this only spread the burning gasoline and turpentine mixture further. The shop was engulfed in seconds. Although the volunteer firefighters arrived at the initial blaze in less than fifteen minutes, the fire had already spread to the neighboring saloons and liquor store, where it found even more fuel.

The spring weather of 1889 had been unusually warm and dry for Seattle, beautiful, and disastrous. Like most cities of its time, Seattle's buildings had been constructed mostly of wood. The gorgeous weather had dried out that wood, and the flames spread quickly.

Ironically for a city surrounded by water, Seattle's firefighting infrastructure proved bitterly inadequate to the challenge. Hydrants could be found only every other block. Their old wooden pipes were too small to yield adequate water pressure, and when those pipes caught fire they only helped spread the flames.

In the absence of the fire chief, who was attending a firefighting convention in San Francisco, Seattle mayor Robert Moran ordered the Colman block destroyed to create a firebreak. It did not help. The warm, dry conditions allowed the fire to jump it easily. Now there was nothing between the fire and the rest of downtown Seattle, including the all-important wharfs.

However, the firebreak and the efforts of the firefighters had bought enough time for Seattle's residents to escape. Some were even able to hire wagons and get most of their belongings on board ships.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, thirteen hours after the fire had started, the flames finally died down, and a sleepless city began to calculate the fire's cost. Thirty-two city blocks had burned, including all the railroad terminals. Of the docks, only four wharfs remained. The entire business district of the city was gone, as well as Trinity Church, the spiritual heart of Seattle. The damage would later be valued at over 20 million dollars. Even so, heroic bucket brigades had managed to save a few buildings, including the courthouse and the jail. Remarkably, only one person had died in the fire.

The very next day, Seattle's residents chose to rebuild on the same location, this time in fire-resistant stone and iron. Local aid started arriving within hours, supplies within

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