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

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

(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 most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

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, during the same summer ...

destroyed the entire central business district of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

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 around Orange County, California and the Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889. 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 Spokane Falls Review'', later ''The Spokesman-Review''. ...

. The town hosted the

Northwest Industrial Exposition The Northwestern 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 di ...

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 railway 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 Midwest ...

'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 units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

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