The Great Seattle Fire

June 6, 1889 A.D.

Constance & Firebug Leech settled in the Seattle area after departing the scene of the Muskogee fire.  The great Seattle fire of June 6, 1889, started in a paint shop on the Denny Block where Leech worked.  Leech claimed that a glue pot had overturned and he'd attempted to squelch the flames by throwing water on it.  This caused the flammables to scatter every which way catching the floor ablaze.

. . . . the fire started in a building on the northwest corner of Front and Madison streets, owned by Mrs. M. J. Pontius. The cause, as usual, was trivial. . . . The fire department were promptly on the ground, but the water failed, and the slender stream seemed rather to irritate than subdue the evil. The work of ruin was begun.--Julian Hawthorne (1893)

Leech was able to stay in town for some time as stories differed as to who was responsible for the fire.  Some accounts even mention a Swede.

He resurfaces in public records a few years later, this time in Jacksonville, Florida.