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The Great Seattle Fire

What is The Great Seattle Fire?. The Great Seattle Fire was a big fire that swept through downtown Seattle. Although the fire destroyed over 160 acres (25 city blocks) and over 8 million dollars, it made Seattle better and stronger and better than before. Downtown Seattle was rebuilt in brick instea

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The Great Seattle Fire

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    1. The Great Seattle Fire By Alex, Nick, Matt and Kepe

    2. What is The Great Seattle Fire? The Great Seattle Fire was a big fire that swept through downtown Seattle. Although the fire destroyed over 160 acres (25 city blocks) and over 8 million dollars, it made Seattle better and stronger and better than before. Downtown Seattle was rebuilt in brick instead of fire and the land was leveled to make the area flat.

    3. How it Started June 6, 1889, John Back an assistant in Victor Clairmont’s wood working shop was heating glue over a gasoline fire. Sometime over 2:15pm the glue caught on fire. He tried to put out the fire put that just spread the turpentine on the floor spreading the fire.

    4. Fighting the Fire At 2:45pm, the fire department arrived but it was too late the fire had already reached a liquor store that had exploded. Seattle’s water supply was a major problem when fighting the fire. Hydrants were on every other block and were very small. They were made of wood and burned with the fire. With so many hydrants in use there was very little water pressure. Mayor Robert Moran took command from the Fire Chief and ordered the block next to the fire to be blown up but the fire just kept spreading.

    5. Losing Hope By 4pm, most residents realized downtown Seattle was hopeless. The fire had reached First & Second Ave. and was heading for Third Ave. Later, the fire reached Fourth Ave. and University.

    6. A Heroic Act A man by the name of Lawrence Booth climbed to the top of the courthouse and poured water on it. He saved the courthouse and documents inside. At 8pm the mayor ordered all shacks nearby too be destroyed so they wound not burn in the fire.

    7. End of the Fire The fire burned until 3am. Over 120 acres (25 blocks) were damaged. Human deaths were low, but 1,000,000 rats (1 million), were killed, thousands of people were displaced, (5,000 lost their jobs), and the city losses were about 8 million.

    8. Aftermath On June 7th, 600 businessmen met and discussed how to cope with the situation. Tacoma helped raise $20,000 and gave it to Seattle. Instead of rebuilding with wood, it was decided that most buildings should be rebuilt with brick. Within a year, most damages were repaired. The Great Seattle Fire was more of a setback than destruction and led to many major improvements in Seattle.

    9. Sources Washington state history, Seattle fire. http://www.undergroundtour.com/images/Fire-Horizontal.jpg http://heavenlytruth.com/examiner/greatseattlefirewikipedia.jpg

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