The Chelsea Fire of 1908

The Great Chelsea Fire: April 12, 1908

PALM SUNDAY IN CHELSEA 1908

It was a beautiful but cool Sunday morning, except for a strong wind from the northwest. The wind, blowing throughout the previous night, averaged twenty-five miles per hour and at sunrise began to increase. By eight o'clock, the wind had reached thirty miles per hour and by noon had reached forty miles per hour with strong gusts. The gale force winds did little to deter residents from making their way to Palm Sunday services.

Few if any noticed a thread of smoke rising in the western sky, a cloud of disaster was beginning to descend on Chelsea.

At 10:44 A.M. an alarm of fire was received from street box 28 for a fire in a pile of rags put out to dry in a vacant lot on the corner of Second and Carter Street. Meanwhile the winds had lifted burning rags to the roof of the Boston Blacking Company igniting the building. Upon arrival Chief Spencer ordered a second alarm as a precaution due to the high winds. Inspite of the wind the fire was knocked down quickly. While the fire department was making up, with some apparatus already returned to quarters, a fire was sighted in T. Lewitzky's three story rag shop one-hundred yards from the original fire. The building was fully involved in a matter of minutes. Chief Spencer ordered box 698, the mutual aid call for help from Boston. Sparks and flaming debris were being carried by the wind igniting many other buildings in the area. Chapin and Sawdin tar paper factory across the street, ignited and burned with a furious heat from the tar paper. A shed nearby used to store gasoline, blew up; from this point on the fire was out of
control.

At the time of the fire of April 12, 1908, the Chelsea fire department consisted of seventy-seven men, twenty-one permanent firefighters and fifty six call men, one chief and one assistant chief. The permanent firefighters were on duty twenty-four hours a day, each man being allowed three hours per day for meals and one day off in every eight. Call men were permitted to work elsewhere but were subject to call at all times. The call man was under civil service and paid $200 per year, but he was fined fifty cents for each and every roll call he failed to answer. The apparatus was all horse drawn with three steamers, two hose wagons, one chemical wagon, one ladder truck, one buggy for the chief and twenty-four horses.

It was a rapidly moving fire, reaching its most distant point in about five hours and all buildings that caught fire were totally destroyed inside of ten hours. By the time the fire was under control, 492 acres of Chelsea was ashes and rubble. Block after block from Summer and Second Street north to the railroad tracks, wiping out Everett Avenue, Walnut and Fourth Streets. From Bellingham Square and the business district of Broadway the flames ravaged the palatial homes on Bellingham Hill and continued eastward to the river burning the Chelsea Street bridge and the railroad bridge to East Boston.

Due to the catastrophic proportions of the fire. Mayor Beck requested Acting Governor Draper to call in the militia. The militia was called at 11:36 A.M. Three officers and sixty-one men of the 5th Company of the Coast Artillery Corps of Chelsea reported. The men reported to the Armory on Broadway across from the library, to change into their service uniform, leaving their civilian clothes, watches and other valuables in their lockers. The Armory was completey destroyed by the fire. Fifty-three more militia units reported to Chelsea for around the clock duty. Seven hundred tents were set up in various sections of the city while others set up in the stalled street cars, empty stores and GAR Hall. All police were ordered to report for duty on the sounding of the second alarm at 10:56 A.M. Many of the police as well as the fire fighters, had to remain on duty while their homes were destroyed by the fast moving fire. More than one-half of the curbstones were crumbled to stones by the heat. Eighteen miles of streets were burned. Thirteen churches, eight schools, the Frost Hospital, the library, the post office, YMCA, the City Hall, four newspapers, and the Board of Health Building were destroyed. In all 3000 buildings were destroyed and 18,000 people made homless. Nineteen people lost their lives in the fire. A five member Board of Control was appointed by the Governor and given all legislative and executive powers to rebuild and rehabilitate the city. The Board assumed office on June 3rd with temporary rooms at Chelsea High School on Crescent Avenue until August 17th when it moved to the Court House in Chelsea Square.

Twenty-nine months later, Chelsea boasted of a new City Hall, two new large schools, a new library, a new city yard, two new fire stations, new churches and eight hundred and sixty buildings were now standing. Streets were widened, some extended and new streets laid out. Chelsea stood proud, the city did not receive any State or Federal money. One million dollars was borrowed on city bonds to rebuild city properties. The loan was paid back in fifty years. The people of Massachusetts raised $360,000 in contributions for the relief of the people of Chelsea. The pluck of it's citizens put Cheisea back on it's feet.

Return to:

Chelsea Historical Society

1908 Fire Pictures page 1

1908 Fire Pictures page 2

1973 Fire Story

1973 Fire Pictures

The Great Chelsea Fire: April 12, 1908
PALM SUNDAY IN CHELSEA 1908 It was a beautiful but cool Sunday morning, except for a strong wind from the northwest. The wind, blowing throughout the previous night, averaged twenty-five miles per hour and at sunrise began to increase. By eight o'clock, the wind had reached thirty miles per hour and by noon had reached forty miles per hour with strong gusts. The gale force winds did little to deter residents from making their way to Palm Sunday services. Few if any noticed a thread of smoke rising in the western sky, a cloud of disaster was beginning to descend on Chelsea. At 10:44 A.M. an alarm of fire was received from street box 28 for a fire in a pile of rags put out to dry in a vacant lot on the corner of Second and Carter Street. Meanwhile the winds had lifted burning rags to the roof of the Boston Blacking Company igniting the building. Upon arrival Chief Spencer ordered a second alarm as a precaution due to the high winds. Inspite of the wind the fire was knocked down quickly. While the fire department was making up, with some apparatus already returned to quarters, a fire was sighted in T. Lewitzky's three story rag shop one-hundred yards from the original fire. The building was fully involved in a matter of minutes. Chief Spencer ordered box 698, the mutual aid call for help from Boston. Sparks and flaming debris were being carried by the wind igniting many other buildings in the area. Chapin and Sawdin tar paper factory across the street, ignited and burned with a furious heat from the tar paper. A shed nearby used to store gasoline, blew up; from this point on the fire was out of control. At the time of the fire of April 12, 1908, the Chelsea fire department consisted of seventy-seven men, twenty-one permanent firefighters and fifty six call men, one chief and one assistant chief. The permanent firefighters were on duty twenty-four hours a day, each man being allowed three hours per day for meals and one day off in every eight. Call men were permitted to work elsewhere but were subject to call at all times. The call man was under civil service and paid $200 per year, but he was fined fifty cents for each and every roll call he failed to answer. The apparatus was all horse drawn with three steamers, two hose wagons, one chemical wagon, one ladder truck, one buggy for the chief and twenty-four horses. It was a rapidly moving fire, reaching its most distant point in about five hours and all buildings that caught fire were totally destroyed inside of ten hours. By the time the fire was under control, 492 acres of Chelsea was ashes and rubble. Block after block from Summer and Second Street north to the railroad tracks, wiping out Everett Avenue, Walnut and Fourth Streets. From Bellingham Square and the business district of Broadway the flames ravaged the palatial homes on Bellingham Hill and continued eastward to the river burning the Chelsea Street bridge and the railroad bridge to East Boston. Due to the catastrophic proportions of the fire. Mayor Beck requested Acting Governor Draper to call in the militia. The militia was called at 11:36 A.M. Three officers and sixty-one men of the 5th Company of the Coast Artillery Corps of Chelsea reported. The men reported to the Armory on Broadway across from the library, to change into their service uniform, leaving their civilian clothes, watches and other valuables in their lockers. The Armory was completey destroyed by the fire. Fifty-three more militia units reported to Chelsea for around the clock duty. Seven hundred tents were set up in various sections of the city while others set up in the stalled street cars, empty stores and GAR Hall. All police were ordered to report for duty on the sounding of the second alarm at 10:56 A.M. Many of the police as well as the fire fighters, had to remain on duty while their homes were destroyed by the fast moving fire. More than one-half of the curbstones were crumbled to stones by the heat. Eighteen miles of streets were burned. Thirteen churches, eight schools, the Frost Hospital, the library, the post office, YMCA, the City Hall, four newspapers, and the Board of Health Building were destroyed. In all 3000 buildings were destroyed and 18,000 people made homless. Nineteen people lost their lives in the fire. A five member Board of Control was appointed by the Governor and given all legislative and executive powers to rebuild and rehabilitate the city. The Board assumed office on June 3rd with temporary rooms at Chelsea High School on Crescent Avenue until August 17th when it moved to the Court House in Chelsea Square. Twenty-nine months later, Chelsea boasted of a new City Hall, two new large schools, a new library, a new city yard, two new fire stations, new churches and eight hundred and sixty buildings were now standing. Streets were widened, some extended and new streets laid out. Chelsea stood proud, the city did not receive any State or Federal money. One million dollars was borrowed on city bonds to rebuild city properties. The loan was paid back in fifty years. The people of Massachusetts raised $360,000 in contributions for the relief of the people of Chelsea. The pluck of it's citizens put Cheisea back on it's feet.









Return to:

Chelsea Historical Society	1908 Fire Pictures page 1	1908 Fire Pictures page 2
	1973 Fire Story	1973 Fire Pictures