100 years ago in Spokane: A man died at the scene of a raging fire, but not from smoke or flames, and a deputy was accused of inciting a riot among striking workers

A fire at the Holley-Mason Building downtown resulted in the death of Charles Roberts – but he was not killed by smoke or fire.

He died when he was knocked to the pavement by water from an out-of-control firehose. Roberts, a spectator, was rocked backward and fractured his skull. He was a salesman staying at the nearby New Inland Hotel.

Roberts was one of thousands who gathered to watch the spectacular blaze. The fire apparently started because of “spontaneous combustion among varnish stocks” on the sixth floor of the building. Flames and smoke were pouring from the building when firefighters arrived.

Firefighters had to poke holes through the brick wall of the elevator shaft and shove nozzles through to spray the fire. They also poked holes through the concrete roof.

All of the goods on the sixth floor were destroyed, and there was considerable water damage on the floors below. The building itself, made of reinforced concrete, was not seriously damaged.

From the strike beat: Railroad shop strikers alleged a sheriff’s deputy and a Great Northern agent attempted to “incite the strikers to riot.” They said a sheriff’s deputy approached them and suggested they “frighten a number of colored employees” who had been hired as replacements. The Great Northern agent joined in and suggested that they should place “torpedoes” (firecrackers) on the tracks to frighten the employees, and that they should also fire pistols in the air and “shower rocks and coal on the car” where Black employees were sleeping.

When union officials heard about this, they warned the strikers to do no such thing. Instead, union officials contacted the district attorney, and asked him to investigate the incident. The sheriff said his deputy would be “discharged forthwith” if he was found to have made such a suggestion.