Schorow - Boston on fire : a history of fires and firefighting in Boston

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

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A fire in Boston, 1852

FOREWORD

During the nearly forty years I served with the Boston Fire Department, I found that most of the department's rich history, including the history of the many Boston fires, was based on rumors, innuendo, and occasionally outright falsehoods. Stephanie Schorow's marvelous historical account of Boston fires and fire fighting has made me feel quite sheepish that I didn't take enough interest in those who had preceded my colleagues and me, and in how the organization has evolved into one of the most respected in the entire fire service.

Covering a wide span of historystarting with the first primitive attempts to control fires, shortly after the Puritans made their way to Boston, and continuing into the presentis certainly an awesome task for any author. It involves dedication, determination, and a love of the subject matter, along with a style of writing that captures the reader's attention.

There have been thousands upon thousands of serious fires in Boston and the surrounding communities through the centuries, and Ms. Schorow has selected a number of the most serious and prominent incidents, often involving loss of lives and tremendous property damage. These disasters represent the difficulties and dangers firefighters frequently encounter in the course of their duties.

A great number of firsts are associated with the Boston Fire Department, including the purchase of the initial vehicle designed for fighting fires, back in the 1600s; the first telegraph fire alarm system in the world, in 1851; and many other innovations related to respiratory protection and other personal protective equipment for firefighters.

FOREWORD

The representative number of fires Ms. Schorow chose to research in depth is a very wise selection. Until I read this book, I only vaguely remembered hearing about the 1834 Ursuline Convent fire in the Charlestov^n District. The fascinating circumstances leading up to the incident made me realize just how much prejudice, both ethnic and religious, existed in those long-ago daysnot unlike what still remains today in many parts of the country and the world. The Broad Street Riot, just a few years later, which is so well described, further underscores this view.

Ms. Schorow describes in detail the Great Fire of 1872, which destroyed much of Boston's financial and commercial district; the 1942 Cocoanut Grove disaster, which led to the largest loss of life in a nightclub fire; the 1908 and 1973 conflagrations in the nearby city of Chelsea; and the 1972 fire at the Vendome Hotel, in which nine firefighters died when the hotel partially collapsed. For her discussion of twentieth-century fires, wherever possible Ms. Schorow has personally interviewed survivors as well as fire personnel who participated in rescue and fire-fighting efforts.

A massive number of arson fires plagued Boston during the early 1980s, when a severe budget crisis led to the termination of many firefighters. Ms. Schorow has managed to interview some of those behind the events of this bizarre periodnone of whom were laid-off members of the fire department.

The afterword briefly describes other notable, serious incidents, including the Bellflower Street fire, the Prudential Tower fire, and major fires in surrounding communities. Ms. Schorow's personal reflections about how her research has affected her own views of the fire service are quite poignant.

Reading the names of so many figures, prominent in the history of the country, who lived and worked in Boston, and their relationship to the fire service, makes one realize how large a part this city played, from a historical point of view, in the establishment of the United States of America, as well as in the evolution of fire fighting. The details of fire fighting operations, as

FOREWORD

well as many personal reflections of those involved^ make for a book that anyone with a love of the fire service should cherish. It should also be most instructive to the general population, who know so little about what firefighters actually accomplish on their behalf.

Leo D. Stapleton Fire Commissioner Chief of Def^artment (retired)

Boston Fire Department

FIRE: AN INTRODUCTION

Almost every visitor to Boston runs across the city's famous Freedom Trail. This path, marked by a red line on the pavement, winds through the city, linking the points where history was made: Paul Revere's home, the Old North Church, the Old South Church, Bunker Hill. But there's another trail in Boston, unmarked and unnoticed, that weaves through the narrow streets on a more somber journey. It is Boston's fire trail, a path of points where another kind of history was madethe history of fires, fire fighting, firefighters, and fire lore. Like the Freedom Trail, the fire trail starts in Boston and continues in spirit through the nation. Not only did fire change Boston's geography, laws, and the lives of so many of its people, but the effects of those changes also rippled through the continent. Perhaps only those who daily face the threat of fire fully understand the impact of Boston's fires on fire fighting everywhere.

"Fire fiend." "Niagara of destruction." "The giant." "The monster." "Possessed of an evil spirit." These are among the names that early Bostonians gave to the destructive force that retumed, again and again, to consume their homes and businesses. When frequent fires ravaged the young town, Boston's Puritans declared that the flames were the work of a wrathful God, a reminder of the fickle and fleeting nature of earthly existence. God's wrath notwithstanding, Bostonians faced down the fire fiend with building regulations, innovations in fire apparatus, and volunteers who began a tradition of self-sacrifice for the public good.

Boston has its share of fire "firsts": the first paid fire department, the first building codes, and the first municipal fire alarm system. All these advances made the city justifiably proud of its efforts in keeping the fire fiend at bay But hubris can end on a fiery bier. In 1872 a burgeoning Boston, fat and complacent in the

FIRE: AN INTRODUCTION

post-Civil War boom, ignored warnings that the city was growing too fast; too soon. The result was the Great Fire of 1872, a conflagration that left the commercial district in ashes and reshaped the city's downtown. Few residents, strolling today amid the bustle of the shops at the city's Downtown Crossing or jabbering on cell phones as they scurry into large office buildings, realize the full devastation of the fire that torched the ground under their feet. It was a inferno so fierce that without the Atlantic Ocean as a fire break, it would have, as modern firefighters like to joke, burned Berlin.