Baltimore Fire of 1873

Baltimore Fire of 1873 - The six known photos... 

Fire swept through downtown Baltimore on July 26, 1873 scorching a large section of the business district bounded by Lexington street on the south, Howard street on the west, Mulberry street on the north, and Liberty street on the east. The exact cause of the blaze is unknown, but it spread very quickly, aided by the large number of shingle roofs which were exceedingly dry in mid-summer and burnt like paper. 

Residents fled into the street and waited patiently for help. Since there weren't any hydrants or central water system, the firemen had to draw from small streams and the harbor and dammed up the gutters to not waste it. At the height of the inferno the Baltimore Police department was urged to blow up a building to stop the progress of the flames, but prudently decided that such extreme measures were unnecessary. Reinforcements came by train from Washington with three flat cars loaded with steamers and hose reels along with a passenger car filled with firemen, making the emergency run in forty minutes.

Casualties were thankfully light; two firemen were wounded when a boiler pump exploded, and only one death was reported, as Sister Rinaldi, a nun at the convent of Saint Alphonsus Church, suffered a heart attack and died from fright. The aftermath crippled commerce in the city for months as efforts to rebuild began immediately. Over 140 buildings had burned to the ground in less than a day. The cost of the devastation was roughly half covered by insurance, putting a catastrophic strain on banks that were already paying off the 1871 Chicago and 1872 Boston Fires. The area immediately south of the 1873 fire would burn in the Great Fire of 1904 and cause far more damage.

"This morning's Sun estimates the loss by the fire yesterday at $500,000, and states that good judges place the damage as low as between $300,000 and $400,000. Gazette estimates the loss at from $500,000 to $800,000, and the American says the loss will closely approximate $1,000,000."
- Davenport Daily Gazette, Iowa July 26, 1873