DESTROYED BY FIRE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 160, 26 July 1889, Page 4

DESTROYED BY FIRE.

The city of Seattle, on Puget Sound, one of the most important in Washington ter* ritory, which gave promise of distancing Portland, 'Oregon, and becoming the metropolis of the North-west, was almost •totally destroyed by fire oa. Jun© 6. The city was burned from the water's edge to the hillside, the area ravaged being 120 aores. It was started by a workman, who ' upset a glue pot in a cabinet shop. Before the fire had been burning an hour the water gave out, and the people wero utterly help less to control or stay the flames. They •tood idly by and saw their city burn. There was no fire department to speak of. The total loss is between 10,000,000d0l and 12,000,000d01. Rebuilding was commenced almost before the ruins had ceased to smoke. Four lives wtu lost, one of tUc.sc being a thief, who was shot by a pelicemag while in the act of looting. Seattle was the county seat of King's Country, Washington Territory, and located in a spacious and placid harbour in the middle sound, a short distance south of Saioma, Its population had increased from 6000 in 1883 to 30,000 in 1887. Five railroads centred in it. The •oity was the headquarters of the Puget Sound business, all of the steamboat lines, with two exceptions, making it their headquarters. \