Burn baby burn

November 7, 2007 9:50 AM

The great Seattle Fire. "The spring of 1889 in Seattle had been beautiful....Unfortunately, the unusually good weather proved to be disastrous, as the dry conditions conspired with a handful of other elements to allow for the worst fire in city history...the fire burned until 3:00 am. When it was done, the damage was enormous. 120 acres (25 city blocks) had been destroyed, as was every wharf and Mill from Union to Jackson Streets. Although the loss of human life was evidently low (no statistics were kept on that) it was estimated that 1 million rats were killed...." Photo gallery. A roughly contemporaneous account. A Historylink essay on the fire. How the fire changed Seattle's architecture.
posted by dersins (8 comments total)

They built a new Seattle on top of the old Seattle.
posted by jonson at 9:52 AM on November 7, 2007

Oh, and this documentary won 1st place in the Junior Group Documentary division in the 2007 National History Day contest. And it doesn't suck.
posted by dersins at 10:03 AM on November 7, 2007

Heating glue over a gas fire on a wood chip and turpentine covered floor, now that was the good old days.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 10:03 AM on November 7, 2007

The Seattle Underground Tour is highly recommended, if you've never done it. There's also a great jazz record store around the corner from where it lets off.
posted by psmealey at 10:04 AM on November 7, 2007

Previously.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:21 AM on November 7, 2007

Oh, so my fervent hope that Seattle will 'Burn to Ashes' was retroactive?

Fair enough.
posted by Pecinpah at 10:26 AM on November 7, 2007

I love the idea of estimating the number of rats that were killed. I really want to know how they could possibly have the data to even produce a ballpark figure. Had they taken a census of the rats that were in that area before the fire? And did they then canvass the surrounding area after the fire to see which of the rats in the burned-out area had managed to escape?

I joke, of course, but, really, that number could only have been produced from someone's ass.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:33 AM on November 7, 2007

I joke, of course, but, really, that number could only have been produced from someone's ass.

There's a stinky 73.99% chance of that.
posted by empyrean at 10:54 AM on November 7, 2007