Great Seattle Fire

One year later, something we've actually talked about before on the show, shout out to Jen, Seattle's caught fire.

And on June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle Fire tore through more than 30 city blocks.

Businesses, homes, the waterfront, and Moran's own shipyard were gone.

Imagine being mayor, your city is burning, your business is burning, and everyone is looking at you asking, so what's the plan? Moran didn't panic.

Seattle in 1907 was booming.

Just two decades earlier, the Great Seattle Fire had leveled much of the downtown, but the rebuilt city had quickly grown into a major maritime hub.

Steam ships moved constantly between Puget Sound, Alaska, and California.

Cargo ships arrived from Asia carrying tea, silk, and manufactured goods.

The effort even extended underground.

Beneath Seattle's streets lay the remnants of an older city.

The basements and passageways created after the Great Seattle Fire when the city raised its street level.

Those underground spaces had become dark, damp refuge for rats and occasionally for people as well.

where we have shown that thousands and thousands of buildings, hundreds of acres, have been destroyed and lit up in flames, yet hardly anybody passed away.

The Baltimore Great Fire, Portland Great Fire, Toronto Great Fire, Seattle Great Fire, Galveston Great Fire, Pittsburgh Great Fire, a total of two lives taken from all of these great fires.

Yet here in Cleveland, Ohio, 1944, 130 people in just 79 homes.

So you do the math.