In the summer of 1910, fire was in the headlines

July 27, 2020 1:30 am
Roy Vataja Collection The Hotel Hoquiam opened in June, 1900 - a massive, ornate, four-story structure with turrets and gingerbread trimmings. It stood on the south end of Hoquiam’s business district , bounded by 7th and 8th Streets and M and N Streets - across from the old Hoquiam train station and just south of where the Saron Lutheran Church stands today. It was a White Elephant, losing money and glamour, and ending up as an apartment house, but for the ten years that it stood, it was a beautiful and storied White Elephant. It burned on July 22, 1910 at the cost of 2 lives.
Roy Vataja Collection The Hotel Hoquiam opened in June, 1900 - a massive, ornate, four-story structure with turrets and gingerbread trimmings. It stood on the south end of Hoquiam’s business district , bounded by 7th and 8th Streets and M and N Streets - across from the old Hoquiam train station and just south of where the Saron Lutheran Church stands today. It was a White Elephant, losing money and glamour, and ending up as an apartment house, but for the ten years that it stood, it was a beautiful and storied White Elephant. It burned on July 22, 1910 at the cost of 2 lives.

HARBOR FIRES GREAT AND SMALL – JULY 1910

Late-July 1910 saw the Harbor beset by fires, not particularly unusual during the summer in small timber towns. It was the massive holocaust in Hoquiam on July 22, 1910 that killed two and injured many more that held the headlines when the substantial, picturesque four-story Hotel Hoquiam was reduced to rubble in an early morning blaze.

FIRE AT COSMOPOLIS – Cosmopolis – Fire was discovered about four o’clock this morning in a one-story frame building on Main street, owned by the Grays Harbor Commercial Co., and occupied as a bowling alley and cigar store. The fire department was quickly on the scene after the alarm was given, and succeeded in confining the flames to the building in which they originated. The building and contents are almost a total loss, and the amount of insurance, if any, is unknown. – Aberdeen Herald, July 21, 1910

FIRE VISITS CITY HALL – Hoquiam – Damages to the extent of $5,000 was done to the city hall here today when fire broke in the attic of the building, threatening its destruction.

Before the flames could gain control, Fire Chief Crawford had men using three lines of house hose in the attic, and within 45 minutes the fire was under control.

Owing to the small amount of water in the reservoir, the pressure was not sufficient to throw water over the building, which is only two stories high. – Aberdeen Herald, July 21, 1910

FOREST FIRES RAGE – The Mack logging camp, located a short distance east of Elma, was completely destroyed by forest fire Tuesday evening. Reports received here yesterday state that the entire camp equipment, including logging engines, many logging cars, bunk houses and supplies were destroyed.

The fire in the North River district is said to be burning slowly into the green timber, but at such a slow rate that the amount of damage is nominal.

The Polson Logging Company is in the greatest peril should fire get started in its workings, as there are thousands of acres of logged-off lands which would burn, destroying the railroad system. – Aberdeen Herald, July 21, 1910

HUMAN HOLOCAUST – The Hoquiam Hotel was destroyed by fire early Friday morning, and two of its occupants were burned to death and several seriously injured in escaping from the burning building. The fire was discovered at 1:15 a.m. and in a few minutes the huge frame structure was a seething mass of flames. Mrs. Mary Olson, aged 77 years, and C.E. Janette, aged 50, were burned to death in the building. Chas. L.D. Greganza jumped from a window into a blanket, as did Look Wing, a Chinese cook, and both were severely injured.

The Hoquiam fire department was promptly on the scene, and the Aberdeen chemical engine made the run to the fire in 19 minutes, but the building was doomed, and the all the firemen could do was to assist the escape of the occupants of the house, and prevent the spread of flames to other buildings. The heat was intense, and at the beginning it looked as if the business district of Hoquiam would be destroyed. A sudden shift on the direction of the wind was all that saved a disastrous spread of the fire.

Mrs. Olson was seen by William Ruston as he was leaving the building, and he tried to take her with him, but the old lady persisted in going back to her room for something. When her body was found the next day, a purse containing $65 was lying near, which was doubtless what she had gone to save. Charles Olson, her son, with whom she lived, was working that night at the National Mill, where he is a millwright, and his grief over his loss was most pathetic.

C.E. Janette was a lineman in the employ of the telephone company, and had a wife and son in Tacoma, who came to Hoquiam Saturday, and took the remains to Tacoma for burial yesterday.

The hotel was built in 1899 and occupied as a hotel in June, 1900. It was owned by a corporation known as the Hotel Company. For about five years it was conducted by that concern and was later operated by Dr. Lycan. R. Knott held a mortgage against the place, which was taken off his hands by Mr. H.C. Heermans now in Corning, N.Y., with his wife.

The cost of the old Hoquiam Hotel with its furnishings was approximately $110,000. It was never a paying investment. After being stripped of its hotel furnishings the place was utilized as an apartment house. It was one of the picturesque landmarks of the boom days.

Of late years it was occupied as an apartment house, and since the fire, surprise is expressed that no fire escapes or other protection was provided in a four story building that was the dwelling place of so many people.

The origin of the fire is as yet unidentified. At first it was the disposition to attribute it to defective electric wiring, but a suspicion is growing that it may have been incendiary [arson] and F.A. Schwabe was taken into custody Friday and later released.

Prof. Schwabe occupied apartments in the hotel structure. With his wife, they conducted a musical studio. The fire, it is said, caught beneath the Schwabe apartments in the basement or close to them. Schwabe had trouble with his wife, who is suing for a legal separation. He threatened her, she claims. The court issued an order, the police state, restraining Prof. Schwabe from occupying his apartments, this being the result, it is said, of Professor Schwabe’s alleged threat. – Aberdeen Herald, July 25, 1910

DEFECTIVE WIRING CAUSE – Following an investigation of the case of the fire which destroyed the Hotel Hoquiam at Hoquiam early last Friday morning, which resulted in the lost of two lives, it has been given out as the opinion of the authorities that the fire was not of incendiary origin as at first rumored, but was caused from defective wiring.

The remains of Mary Olson, the aged lady who was burned to death, in the holocaust were laid to rest with appropriate funeral services on Tuesday afternoon. The body of C.E. Junett, the telephone foreman, who was also burned to death was shipped to relatives in Tacoma Sunday morning from Hoquiam by Undertaker Pinnick. Funeral services were held in that city Monday under the auspices of Commencement Lodge No. 7. Knights of Pythias, of which the deceased was a member. – Aberdeen Herald, July 28, 1910

Roy Vataja is the son of Finnish immigrants and, like so many others, has been going slightly bonkers with the Covid-19 lockdowns and everything it entails. Use common sense: Mask up, maintain social distance, and remain calm, this won’t go on forever. It only feels like it.