The 1956 Rabenstein gas station fire

FIRES OF THE PAST

SNOHOMISH — While it may not have been one of the largest of fires in the Snohomish’s history, The 1956 Rabenstein gas station fire tends to be one of the most remembered by those who were here at the time.

The corner of Second Street and Avenue D has always been one of the busiest intersections in Snohomish. From the 1940s to the 1980s, State Route 2 passed through Snohomish starting at the north end of Avenue D where it then turned east on Second Street. With that in mind, Second and D was a prime location for businesses catering to travelers. In 1956 there were three service stations plus a Dairy Queen encompassing the intersection. Mel Rabenstein’s Chevron station anchored the southeast corner, where presently the 7-Eleven stands. (The Dairy Queen was where J&L BBQ is today.)

On June 10, 1956, activity at the service station was a bit busy for a Monday morning. Mel had brought in a painting crew who had erected scaffolding around a portion of the building. Along with the normal local business, a tourist traveling through town had stopped in need of repair.

At about 9:30 that morning, the two painters, Charles Blanton and Ed Butler, were busy at work on the scaffolding along the front of the service station, while Mel had the tourist’s car on the lube rack where he was making repairs. A delivery truck of gasoline had arrived and was unloading into Mel’s storage tanks. 

At the same time truck driver Luther Railton of Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada was heading through town with a load of four brand new Plymouth automobiles from Windsor, Ontario destined for Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Now at this point you are probably wondering why a truck-load of autos from Eastern Canada heading for Vancouver would be traveling through Snohomish. Unlike the United States, where a nationwide highway system was established early on, Canada did not embark on a nationwide system until 1949 with its Trans-Canada Highway that wasn’t fully completed until 1962. In 1956, there were three highway routes over the mountains of British Columbia. The shortest of the three was the Big Bend Highway, which was also known as Highway 1. The majority of the highway was still gravel over the pass with numerous steep grades. The other two were the same, but considered even more dangerous for trucks. Canadian truckers found it to be safer and a lot more comfortable by detouring south to cross over Stevens Pass on U.S. 2. 

As Railton the truck driver came upon Avenue D, the traffic in his direction began to slow. As he began to brake, he found the brakes were failing and he was not slowing down. Several witnesses told the Tribune later that while Railton was not traveling fast, the truck and trailer seemed to swing out of control. 

Upon reaching the intersection the auto carrier clipped the rear of a flatbed truck, causing it to veer toward Rabenstein’s service station where it knocked down two gas pumps and careened into the station’s office. 

Hearing the initial sound of the impact with the flatbed truck, the two painters were able to see the danger coming at them and were able to jump from the scaffolding just as the truck plowed through. 

The entire scene was quickly engulfed by fire. Seeing an avenue of escape to his right, Railton broke the side window and crawled out to safety. Except for a few minor lacerations and bruises along with a little pain from hitting his head on the dashboard, he was unharmed. 

Parked on the side of the building with his gasoline delivery truck, driver Clifford Setterlund watched as the whole event unfolded in front of him. With the flames rapidly approaching, Setterlund quickly and calmly disconnected the hoses that were unloading the fuel, jumped into the cab of the truck, and drove the tanker clear of the building. However, one of the truck’s tires and a fender were burning, and once in the clear Setterlund used the fire extinguisher on his truck to put out the flames. 

Mel Rabenstein, who was in the process of working on the tourist’s car, was probably a bit blessed. If the tourist had not stopped in, he would have been in the office checking bills at the time. Mel was quick to react and was able to lower the lube rack and pull the tourist’s car out ahead of the flames. 

As flames towered at over 30-feet into the air, by estimates of bystanders who had gathered, the fire siren was sounded and in what was described by Fire Chief Chuck Walsh there this was one of the fastest responses he had ever seen. The chief said that the department responded with all three of its fire engines and had water on the fire in less than a few minutes after the impact. 

Even as quick as the firefighters were, they were unable to save much of the building. The truck and trailer were also destroyed in the fire. But while two of the new automobiles were lost, the other two were saved. 

In its reporting of the incident, the Snohomish County Tribune mentioned that a large number of the volunteer firefighters happened to be at Graham’s Pharmacy’s lunch counter at the time, in the building where Vic’s Market is now at Maple Avenue and Bowen Street. Upon the sounding of the siren, all that was left at the counter was a line of still full coffee cups. 

The Tribune’s front page story also said that in the excitement and confusion of the incident, the tourist quickly drove off in his car. He returned later that day to pay Mel his bill.

While the initial estimate of damage was set at $50,000 ($572,287 in today’s dollars), the final damage loss was never reported.

Editor’s note about this fire story: This story is the third entry in an occasional series about historical fires compiled from newspaper articles and material archived from Snohomish Fire District 4.