NFPA Journal - Fall 2021 - 71

the handle inside, and heard a welcoming
ticking sound indicating that the
alarm had been sent.
About a mile away on School Street,
Charles Stearns, the officer on duty at
the fire alarm headquarters atop Boston
City Hall, was reading a newspaper
when he noticed a glow in the dark city
streets. He was preparing to trigger
the striking of the city's bells when the
signal from Box 52 came in. Stearns
triggered the bells: five tolls, a pause,
followed by two tolls, indicating fire in
the area of Box 52. The time was 7:24
p.m. He waited, watching the glow grow
brighter, and another signal arrived. At
7:29 p.m., he triggered the second alarm
to call in additional men. By that time,
however, the fire likely had been burning
for 45 minutes to an hour.
At the Engine Company 7 firehouse,
Foreman Marden's optimistic forecast
for the evening vanished like smoke
as someone rang the doorbell, yelling,
" Fire on Bedford Street! " Marden,
Riley, and other men on call, plus volunteers
from the street, grabbed the
draglines and hauled the 8,970-pound
Amoskeag steam engine and hose reel
the four or five blocks to the burning
Tebbetts Building, arriving in about
two minutes. Marden could see right
away that his men faced a dangerous
fire. The hose was quickly attached to
a hydrant on Bedford Street and then
plugged into the steamer, its coal-fired
engine already churning. The men
pointed a stream of water toward the
building, but soon shifted their attention
to a nearby building that was
smoking; Marden could see that the
Summer Street building was gone and
he wanted to focus on limiting the fire's
spread. He could also see the streams
from Engine 7, while strong, did not
reach the top of the building. Even so,
firefighters continued to attack the fire
as best they could.
About a minute after Engine 7
arrived, Hose Company 2, the Union,
appeared, its 3,080-pound Hunneman
hose reel pulled by men from its station
at 85 Hudson Street, over a quarter of
a mile away. Foreman Nathan S. Brown
plugged the hose into a hydrant at Bedford
and Kingston streets; grabbing the
nozzle, or " pipe, " he dragged the hose
toward the Summer Street building,
planning to send a stream of water
into the cellar. But the fire scene was
already getting out of control. Burning
debris flew through the air; one piece
struck a fireman and knocked off his
hat. Brown had to turn around and wet
the hose behind him to keep it from
catching fire from the flying sparks. A
12-year veteran of the fire department,
Brown had never seen a fire move so
quickly; it seemed to run like lightning
from window to window.
Engine 4 arrived about 7:30 p.m. and
plugged into a hydrant near Kingston
and Summer streets. Now streams were
hitting the Tebbetts Building from several
sides, but it made no difference;
water seemed to make no impression
on the flames, and simply turned to
steam. Bits of burning clothing, particularly
flaming hoop skirts, were driven
upward by the heat. The very bones of
the building were coming apart. Many
of the buildings in downtown Boston
were built of granite, seemingly stern
stuff. But the material actually contains
pockets of moisture, and when
superheated the water seeks escape and
can cause the granite to explode. Hot
chunks of granite were sailing skyward,
joining the burning debris that was
raining down on firefighters. The fire
continued to spread.
Chief Engineer John Damrell was
in his home on Beacon Hill when he
heard the fire bells ring for Box 52. He
knew the location; it was considered
a " bad box, " one situated in the area
of downtown that he was most concerned
about. Grabbing his helmet,
he raced across the Boston Common;
when he came to Winter Street, he
could see his nightmare coming true.
The Tebbetts Building was blazing
from the basement to the roof, as if it
were one vast furnace. In his decades
of firefighting, Damrell had never
seen anything like this.
To his great relief, he saw that his
companies were already at work.
Damrell called over one of his men
and told him to strike the third alarm.
At the alarm headquarters, Charles
Stearns noted the time, 7:34 p.m., and
set the fire bells ringing. Stearns also
struck a fourth alarm, on his own
volition, at 7:45 p.m., to call in all fire
companies.
Damrell saw foreman Brown in an
alleyway behind the Tebbetts Building
and ordered him to take his line
into an adjoining building, which was
already burning. Brown ran with the
hose to the building's third floor to get
water on the windowsills and frames
that were covered with flames. He and
his men stayed until their water was
cut off; another engine had plugged
into their hydrant and the pressure
dropped. " Get out of the building! "
came the command, and Brown complied.
Within 10 minutes the walls
of the Tebbetts Building collapsed,
soon followed by those of the building
Brown had just vacated.
Summer Street was now so hot that
firefighters had to lie in the gutters,
directing their water streams from
behind makeshift fire shields and barriers
of wet crates. Coming upon the scene
was Thomas Leighton Jenks, a member
of the Board of Aldermen, who called
out to Damrell, with a kind of nervous
irony, " Captain, you have got a fearful
fire! " Damrell's reply was blunt: " Yes, and
the city is doomed; this fire will go to the
water, for l have not sufficient force at my
command to stay its progress. "
" Do you mean what you say? " Jenks
said, caught off guard.
" I do, and know whereof I speak, "
Damrell responded.
Damrell ordered Jenks to go to the
Union Telegraph Office and request
help from every city and town within
50 miles of Boston. Damrell was seeing
the Chicago fire unfold in front of him.
From the speed and ferocity of what
was fast becoming a firestorm, he knew
the city's fate depended on responding
with everything that could be mustered.
He also knew that commanding
such an effort would require every bit
of his firefighting knowledge. He did
not yet know that his every action,
and every twist and turn of the next 22
hours, would be scrutinized, critiqued,
and fiercely debated.
STEPHANIE SCHOROW is a Boston-based
writer and the author of Boston on Fire: A History of
Fires and Firefighting in Boston. Her new book, The
Great Boston Fire: An Inferno That Nearly Incinerated
the City, is due out in the fall.
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2021

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