The Great Spokane Fire—known locally as The Great Fire—was a major fire which affected downtown

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

(called "Spokane Falls" at the time) on August 4, 1889. It began just after 6:00 p.m. and destroyed the city's downtown commercial district. Due to technical problems with a pump station, there was no water pressure in the city when the fire started. In a desperate bid to starve the fire, firefighters began razing buildings with dynamite. Eventually winds died down and the fire exhausted of its own accord. As a result of the fire and its aftermath, virtually all of Spokane's downtown was destroyed, though only one person was killed. The cause of the fire was never determined. Theories included a cooking fire in a lunchroom, a curling iron being heated in a kerosene lamp, and a spark from a passing train. Three cities in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

had "great fires" in the summer of 1889. The

Great Seattle Fire The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington on June 6, 1889. The conflagration lasted for less than a day, burning through the afternoon and into the night, and during the same sum ...

destroyed the entire central business district of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

on June 6, 1889. The Great Ellensburg Fire resulted in the city's bid to become the state capital ending in failure. Other fires that summer in the U.S. included the

Santiago Canyon Fire The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 (previously called the ''Great Fire of 1889'') was a massive wildfire in California, which burned large parts of Orange County, Riverside County, and San Diego County during the last week of September 1889. The fi ...

around Orange County, California and the

Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889 The Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889 was a conflagration in Bakersfield, California. The fire would burn for three hours and destroyed most of the town (later reincorporated as a city). In total, 196 buildings were destroyed, one man was killed and ...

. Despite this catastrophe, Spokane continued to grow; the fire set the stage for a building boom. Architect Chauncey B. Seaton came to Spokane to work on rebuilding projects after the fire. He designed the

Review Building The Review Building is a historic six-story building in Spokane, Washington. It was designed in the Romanesque Revival style, and built with terra cotta in 1891 to house the offices of ''The Spokesman-Review''. With It has been listed on the Natio ...

. The town hosted the

Northwest Industrial Exposition The Northwest Industrial Exposition was held in Spokane, Washington (then known as Spokane Falls) in October 1890. It followed the August 4, 1889 fire that burned much of downtown. Chauncey B. Seaton designed the exposition hall. Artworks display ...

in 1890. The main building was designed by Richard H. Martin, Jr. After the Great Fire of 1889 and the rebuilding of the downtown, the city was reincorporated under the present name of "Spokane" in 1891. Just three years after the fire, in 1892,

James J. Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railroad director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwes ...

's Great Northern Railway had arrived in the newly created township of Hillyard (annexed by Spokane in 1924)—the chosen site for Hill's rail

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...

References

{{coord missing, Washington History of Spokane, Washington 1889 fires in the United States 1889 in Washington (state) Fires in Washington (state) Spokane Fire, Great

See also

References