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Courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry, and the Seattle Emergency Operations Center where a large reprint is prominently displayed, is this neat old photo.

I also have an old news clipping of Laura Snyder's that I pledge to scan and make available before too much longer. There is also a treasure of Vashon Historical photos at the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum, though I don’t know the number that pertain to disasters and preparedness, aside from a movie they scanned to DVD entitled “Billingsley’s on Vashon Island” showing another (more explosive!) Civil Defense Drill.



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Historically Vashon has had a few major wildfires:

1893: in August 1893 a fire began in the logged off area near the present high school where the first saw mill was located.  The fire rages for two days and nights, "nearly a hundred" volunteers "fought desperately against apparently hopeless odds, with shovels and hoes and rakes, to save the new Baptist Church and the Presbyterian Church at Center, and the Fuller store across the street.  With the flames within two hundred yards of Center, the wind shifted to the north on the evening of the second day, allowing fire fighters finally gain control of the fire.

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