We Remember: A look back at fires that have shaped our nation’s history

By Cindy Devone-Pacheco

This month marks the anniversaries of a couple noteworthy fires that took place in the southern portion of the United States.

The Great Fire of 1901
Today marks the 109th anniversary of the Great Fire of 1901. On May 3 of that year, Jacksonville, Fla., was the setting for one of the worst fire disasters in Florida history and the largest metropolitan fire in the South. Called the “Great Fire of 1901,” it began as a shanty cookstove fire, which later ignited drying moss at a nearby mattress factory. It didn’t take long for the flames to spread to the entire downtown area of Jacksonville. At the height of the fire, smoke could be seen from Savannah, Ga.

By the time the fire was contained at 8:30 p.m., 2,368 buildings were destroyed, 10,000 people were homeless and 146 city blocks were destroyed. Seven civilians were killed. Although it isn’t as well known, this fire was similar in scale to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

For more on this fire, including photos, visit http://firedaily.com/2010/05/may-3-great-fire-of-1901/.

The Great Atlanta Fire
Sixteen years later, on May 21, 1917, an 11-hour fire destroyed much of the city of Atlanta during the Great Atlanta Fire. By the time this fire began, firefighters had already battled three previous fires in the same hour that day.

At about 12:45 that Monday afternoon, the fire department received a call for a fire in a small warehouse. Upon arrival, the crew found a stack of mattresses burning, but they had no firefighting equipment with them because the equipment was already deployed to the other three fires in the area. If the crew had been properly equipped and staffed, the fire would’ve been extinguished then and there. Instead, the fire spread quickly to an area of town filled with shanties and lean-tos, which were no match for the oncoming flames.

At about 4:00 p.m., firefighters started using dynamite to blow up houses as a means to try and stop the fire from spreading further into residential streets. But hours later, the fire was still going strong, destroying some residential areas and threatening others. By 10 p.m., the fire was contained, but the damage was severe.

In 11 hours, firefighters poured 22,000,000 gallons of water onto the flames. Additional aid came from several other towns, including Macon and Augusta, Ga., and Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn. In all, 1,938 buildings were destroyed, 10,000 people were displaced and losses totaled $5.5 million. Three hundred acres (or 73 city blocks) were burned.

Although smoke detectors and other fire prevention technologies make fires of the magnitude seen in Atlanta and Jacksonville rare these days, these incidents still hold some valuable lessons. The Great Fire of Atlanta speaks to the critical importance of being prepared and well equipped in order to keep incidents small—today, that may mean being prepared for incidents as wide-ranging as swiftwater rescues, plane crashes and terrorism incidents in addition to multiple-alarm fires. Another aspect to consider: How strong are your mutual-aid relationships?

The Jacksonville blaze, similarly, underscores the need for rapid response to keep incidents under control. Although we don’t have a lot of information about this incident, it does produce questions still valid for responders today: How reliable is your water supply? If an incident, such as an earthquake, produced multiple fires across your response area, how prepared would you be to respond? How would you assess your community’s preparation for a major incident that may require evacuation? Do you have plans in place to provide for the care of hundreds or thousands of displaced citizens?



Cindy Devone-Pacheco is senior editor for FireRescue magazine.