Fire at Washington State Penitentiary by Ruth Steele (Transcribed from the Pacific Telephone Magazine, November 1926) Walla Walla had a sensational experience on September 3, (1926) when a fire broke out in the main building of the Washington State Penitentiary. At 5 o'clock in the evening the fire started in one of the ventilators and so quickly spread over the building that the entire institution was threatened. The sounding and resounding of the fire alarm told the people of Walla Walla that a fire of a tragic nature had started. It was not lacking in the usual characteristics of such an event, for the cars that soon gathered numbered nearly a thousand, requiring officers to manage the congested traffic and mounted police to control the surging crowd on foot. The outbreak of the fire first brought forward the question of guarding the prisoners, who were all in the dining room at their evening meal, rather than that of extinguishing the flames. The first impulse was to remove them to the ballpark which is located near the center of the penitentiary grounds and is surrounded on four sides by an 8-foot wall. Here, after being arranged in uniform order, they were easily guarded from the walls and watch towers. As it was not long before darkness began to fall, the Pacific Power and Light Company was summoned to wire the walls temporarily for large floodlights which lighted the whole court. This prevented still further the escape of convicts. The fire, according to early spectators, which seemed to burst out over the whole building at once, was burning so rapidly when the fireman arrived that they soon saw the uselessness in trying to extinguish the flames, so their efforts were turned to saving the adjacent buildings. This, in itself, was a formidable task. The cell block, consisting mostly of frame-work, was soon destroyed, leaving 975 prisoners shelterless. Later it was rumored that the disaster was not accidental but was deliberately planned, and that it was originally intended to be a much more serious affair. Only a break in a fuse, prepared by convicts, prevented a destructive fire in the license plate mill. It was interesting to note the variety of sentiments uttered by the inmates. Some were joyous while others actually seemed sad, probably due to the fact that the prison is the only home some of them know. One old man lamented the loss of several beaded bags he was just finishing and which he intended to sell in order to supply himself with smoking tobacco.