Essay on Causes of the Great Seattle Fire

Have you ever been to Seattle? Well did you know it was once on fire that was started by glue? How did the Seattle fire happen? The Great Seattle Fire was more devastating than it needed to be because there was not enough safety and a lack of tools to put out the fire. My first reason was that there was a lack of safety laws. My second reason was that there were not enough tools to put out the fire.

 Stop, Drop and Roll

The Great Seattle Fire first started when john beck who was an assistant in Victor Clairmont's woodworking shop. He was heating glue over a fire and eventually sometime after 2:15 the glue boiled over. The floor was covered in wood chips and turpentine. John beck tried to put the fire out with water which did not help. There was so much smoke it made it difficult to find the source of the fire. By the time the source was found the fire was out of control. When more hoses were used to fight the fire the water pressure dropped significantly to a level where it was not usable. By 4:00 people started to realize that Seattle was doomed. The fire department started to get buckets of water and pour them down the side of the buildings to protect them from the fire. The fire burned until 3:00 AM and burned 120 acres (about half the total floor space of the Pentagon) 5000 men lost their jobs there was about 20 million dollars' worth of damage.

Someone Call 911

The Great Seattle Fire could have been avoided if there were work safety laws in place. The fire was caused by a worker named john beck who was heating glue over a gas fire. He left the glue unattended, and it boiled over, caught fire, and spread to the floors which were covered in turpentine and wood chips. John tried to pour water over the original fire which only thinned the turpentine and spread the fire further. in the Great Seattle Fire, it said sometime after 2:15 the glue boiled over, caught fire, and spread to the floors which were covered in woodchips and turpentine he tried to put the fire out with water but that only spread the fire and thin the turpentine. This is significant because it shows that if there were work safety laws this could have been avoided. The fire could have been avoided but if john beck knew how to put the fire out. But he did not so he just threw water onto it which just thinned the turpentine and spread the fire. In the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 by Bygonly it says the water he used to douse the fire only thinned it and spread the fire further. This quote shows that john beck did not know how to properly put the fire out. The Great Seattle Fire could have been avoided if there were proper safety laws and if he knew how to put the fire out.

Everyone Run!!

The Great Seattle Fire could have been avoided if there were work safety laws in place. The fire was caused by a worker named john beck who was heating glue over a gas fire. He left the glue unattended, and it boiled over, caught fire, and spread to the floors which were covered in turpentine and wood chips. John tried to pour water over the original fire which only thinned the turpentine and spread the fire further. in the Great Seattle Fire, it said sometime after 2:15 the glue boiled over, caught fire, and spread to the floors which were covered in woodchips and turpentine he tried to put the fire out with water but that only spread the fire and thin the turpentine. This is significant because it shows that if there were work safety laws this could have been avoided. The fire could have been avoided but if john beck knew how to put the fire out. But he did not so he just threw water onto it which just thinned the turpentine and spread the fire. In the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 by Bygonly it says the water he used to douse the fire only thinned it and spread the fire further. This quote shows that john beck did not know how to properly put the fire out. The Great Seattle Fire could have been avoided if there were proper safety laws and if he knew how to put the fire out. If there were more tools to put the fire out it could have been less devastating. When the fire started, they only used water to put it out even though they could have used fire extinguishers. Fire extinguishers were invented in 1819 so they have been around for some time in the history of fire extinguishers by fire safety and advice center said the first version of the portable fire extinguisher was invented in 1819 by George William Manby. This is important because it shows that fire extinguishers were available when the fire happened. There were not enough resources to put the fire out. For example, all they had was water and there was not even enough of that. As the firefighters were using water to put the fire out the water pressure dropped significantly to a point where it could be barely used. A hose in your backyard would have been better than the hoses when the water pressure dropped. In the Great Seattle Fire by Bygonly it says the water pressure dropped to the point where the hoses almost stopped working. This is important because it shows that there were not enough resources to put the fire out. If Seattle had enough resources, the fire could have been avoided.

In the End

The Great Seattle Fire was more devastating than it needed to be because there were no proper safety laws and there were not enough tools to put the fire out. My first reason was that there were not enough work safety laws. My second reason was that there were not enough tools to put the fire out. The Great Seattle Fire, though devastating, brought awareness to proper safety laws and the lack of resources