In One Ear: ‘Unbounded and indomitable’

Published 12:15 am Thursday, December 12, 2019

Sunday was the 97th anniversary of the Friday, Dec. 8, 1922 Astoria fire that destroyed 24 blocks of the downtown business district, causing an estimated $12 to $15 million in damage (about $184 to $230 million now) and leaving at least 2,000 homeless. Original damage estimates were higher.

Yet remarkably, only two deaths were left in the disaster’s wake. Bank president Norris Staples died of heart failure at 4 a.m. from his exertions during the fire. Coroner Hughes concluded that laborer John G. Smith, 50, found hanging by the neck from a pier at the foot of Eighth Street at daybreak, committed suicide from fright.

Rumors abounded. The Seattle Star noted that Mayor James Bremner was convinced it was set by “firebugs,” and one woman declared a lumberjack told her, shortly before the alarms went off: “I have set fire to the old town. You will see soon.”

Actually, the fire started because of a furnace explosion in the Theil Brothers’ pool room at about 2 a.m. The fire’s rapid spread was attributed to the flames eating their way below the streets, then feeding on the creosote covering on the pilings that held up most of commercial downtown.

Dynamite was used to stop the fire’s progress, but even so, Astorians as far as 10 blocks away from the conflagration were moving furniture and valuables uphill to safety. When flames threatened city hall, the prisoners were released; coincidentally, the court docket mysteriously disappeared.

The will to rebuild was immediate. “The citizens are showing an unbounded and indomitable courage,” The Seattle Star reported.

“We’ve got no town left, but we’ve still got the best harbor on the Pacific Coast,” Mayor Bremner declared. “We will start rebuilding at once on the old site.”

And so they did, but this time on dredge sands, not wooden pilings — with a new layout and wider streets, much as Astoria looks today.   (tinyurl.com/sstar1208, tinyurl.com/sstar1209, bit.ly/AstFire1922)