Fire Claimed Saloon, Lodging House and Dwellings in 1908

This week's Historic Pinole article recounts a 1908 fire at at time when Pinole had saloons, lodging houses and a volunteer fire department. The estimated damage in costs also gives more context for very different times from the present. The article comes from the June 8, 1908, edition of the San Francisco Call newspaper. It is presented with the original punctuation and spelling.

PINOLE IS SWEPT BY $20,000 BLAZE

Seven Buildings Destroyed by Fire Which Starts in a Lodging House

PINOLE, June 6. — More than $20,000 worth of property was destroyed by a fire which burned all this afternoon. The flames broke out in Mrs. Murphy's lodging house, which was consumed. A small saloon owned by Mrs. Murphy, a two story structure used as a Foresters' hall, the residence of Constable Collins and three buildings owned by Henry Taylor were also wiped out by the fire.

The flames spread from Mrs. Murphy's lodging house to the saloon, thence to the Foresters' hall. The lodging house, valued at $5,000, and the saloon, worth $2,000, were gone before any effort to check the blare could be made. The third building destroyed was the lodge hall, valued at $5,000, and from that the fire spread to the Collins home a two story frame house worth $4,000.

The north wind, fanning the fire, sent it across the street to the three dwellings owned by Taylor. These were occupied by the families of William Golden, James Quinn and William Crabo, three employees of the California powder works at Hercules. They saved only a little of their household goods. Foresters' hall was the headquarters for 10 lodges that lost all their paraphernalia and equipments. The volunteer firemen, under Chief Jerry McDonald, had the flames under control at 6 o'clock this evening.

This article comes from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc. The collection has digitzed more than 400,000 images from newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Images dated between 1846 and 1922 are in the public domain and not subject to copyright.