The Boston Fire of 1872 At around 7 pm November 9th 1872, a spark of unknown origin ignited very inflammable materials within the basement of a dry goods store in Summer and Kingston Streets. According to Sammarco (1997), the flames rose to the shaft of the wooden elevator rushing upwards through the floors packed with inflammable rolls of hosiery, cloth, gloves, hoops and laces igniting the wooden roof. Curious spectators assumed that someone had alerted the firefighters. They stared at the blaze for the first twenty crucial minutes before sounding an alarm. Two fire engines came by and instantly gave the second and third alarms which alerted the neighboring fire companies. By quarter to eight, all fire companies had been alerted. All fire …show more content…
Above and beyond the slow call the fire fighters were troubled by a few factors: The Horse Flu and The Gunpowder. The Boston Fire department and other fire departments during that time depended on horses to drive the fire engines, coal carts, hose reels and ladder carts. Many horses in Boston were suffering from epizootic flu (Sammarco, 1997). The fire department was forced to hire men to get firefighting equipment to the fire brigade. During this inferno, groups of concerned Boston residents gathered in and around city hall to plead with Mayor Gaston to permit usage of gunpowder to destroy buildings along the fire path. This ideology was meant to create a barrier in the fire path to inhibit further spread. Initially, the Fire Chief, Damrell objected firmly knowing that gunpowder would cause more harm, but ultimately he consented due to political pressure. He was forced to issue permits to use the gunpowder. Many groups of people without prior experience or training packed gunpowder kegs in the buildings and ignited a fuse. In a short while, the explosions began causing injury to people and blazing debris which in turn ignited the adjacent buildings. At this point, Damrell was forced to stop the use of gunpowder to quench the fire (Sammarco,