SH Archive Great Chelsea fire of 1908

[KD Archive]

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This is Chelsea, Massachusetts. The place is located slightly north-east of Boston. Considering that the event took place in 1908, it makes it one of the latest so-called fires or conflagrations. We should expect a lot of high quality photographs, right?

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The Great Chelsea fire of 1908 was a conflagration that occurred on 12 April 1908, in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

• Nineteen people were killed.​
• Fifteen thousand people were left homeless.​
• 350 acres (140 ha) were burned in the fire. ​

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On Sunday April 12 1908, at about 11 in the morning, an alarm was rung for a fire in the works of the Boston Blacking Company on West 3rd Street, near the Everett line. The fire department responded immediately, and quickly succeeded in putting the fire out with little damage, but the forty-mile gale that was blowing at the time carried sparks to nearby houses, and soon all the frame buildings in the vicinity were ablaze. The fire then traveled quickly in an easterly direction, and despite the best efforts of the department, was soon beyond control.

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Aid was called-in from nearby cities, but even the much larger fighting force was unable to cope with the fire, and could only attempt to keep it within certain limits. So intense was the heat of the fire that buildings made of solid granite crumbled, and were entirely destroyed. The fire could not be checked in its easterly course, and in a short time traveled across the city and was stopped only by the (this had to be the Chelsea River (aka Chelsea Creek), as the Mystic River is on the Southwestern side of the city, closer to Everett.

The Chelsea River/Creek separates Chelsea from East Boston, and the Meridian St. Bridge is essentially where the river opens to the harbor.) Mystic River at the East Boston line. Almost the entire business section along Broadway was destroyed by the fire, with the northern boundary being the Boston & Maine Railroad tracks, and the southern boundary being Chelsea Square.

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Among the more prominent public buildings that were destroyed include the City Hall, YMCA, Odd Fellows, and Chelsea Savings Bank buildings. About eight schools and a dozen churches were burnt down. The total number of buildings destroyed was about 1500, and between 10,000 to 12,000 people were rendered homeless.

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News about the fire spread quickly. Relief funds were generated from all over the country, with many of the cities and towns in Massachusetts giving substantial amounts for the stricken city. Within two weeks after the fire, the relief committee had received about $300,000, with many more thousands given directly by employers of the burnt-out families, and by fraternal organizations such as Knights of Columbus, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Elks, and Eagles. The committee immediately opened relief stations at the new High School building and at Lincoln Hall, and thousands were fed at these two places daily.

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By Tuesday April 14th, great quantities of clothing had been received for distribution, and a receiving station was established at Boston where contributions of household goods could be gathered. On Wednesday, a large number of people were furnished with cooking utensils and mattresses, and by Saturday thousands of sets of bed-clothing had been distributed. In response to a call from the relief committee, hundreds of automobiles offered their services in delivering goods to the homeless, and the relief work was greatly aided by this means.

Evacuation or Looting?

Source
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Some sources and links:

• Great Chelsea fire of 1908 - Wikipedia​
• Zoom: Montage of photographs of the Great Chelsea Fire, April 12, 1908, showing ruins at various locations.​
• Chelsea, Massachusetts, Great Fire of April 12, 1908, vintage postcards photos​
• eBay images​

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KD: I struggle to positively prove to myself that this is indeed 1908. Granted we have newspapers, and other textual sources, but the photographs presented by the PTB show what, and when exactly?

• Additionally, this here is the quality of the photographs we should expect. Instead we get this. May be some better quality photographs are somewhere about there, but I did not spot any.​
• Bow ties? Really?​

The best line IMHO: So intense was the heat of the fire that buildings made of solid granite crumbled, and were entirely destroyed.

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[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-12-21 21:48:28
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And so it goes... Ad nauseam.
I just had an interesting inspiration, probably out there somewhere else in our soupy milieu.
WHAT IF, these people-whatever-they-were HAD actually lost or had their memories wiped (or had none to begin with) and were being introduced to a new area after a cataclysm or holocaust, could be fed their stories and identities under the auspices of PTSD.
So PTSD also has a direct and usefulness in keeping a people off balance and being able to change the story on them.
All the hospitals, prisons and asylums?!... Relocating "criminals" and "perpetrators"?!
Elementary, really.
These shots of completely obliterated cities and BURNED STONE just has me mouth agape. I mean, REALLY?! COME ON!
I've GOT to go check that out for myself. This Starmonkey business has gone on long enough...

 

[trismegistus]

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Username: trismegistus
Date: 2019-12-21 21:52:47
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According to a quick search, granite is heat resistant to about 100-200 degrees Celsius. Prolonged exposure to these temperatures can cause cracks to form, which is well inside the range of a fire. Melting occurs at a much higher temp but that is not what appears to have happened here.

I will add a caveat to say that this is for kitchen countertop grade granite, it is hard to know to what extent the quality of the granite of these buildings were similar or of higher quality to resist heat.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-12-21 21:59:17
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Agreed. Definitely needs more research. At the same time if it was that easily damaged by fire we would probably not had these made out of granite.

• Granite Fire Pit vs Concrete Block Fire Pit
  • Granite Pavers will NEVER fracture or crack from the heat

The above is claimed to be a natural granite. I doubt the destroyed buildings were made using the natural one. My bet would be on the artificial granite.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-12-21 22:09:54
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If what we're seeing is after some cleanup, otherwise it practically vaporized the city. Didn't leave much behind

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-12-21 22:20:09
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If what we're seeing is after some cleanup, otherwise it practically vaporized the city. Didn't leave much behind

This is a common feature we experience with just about every single suspicious fire of those times. Clean up went unnoticed. I think I have seen one or two horse buggy based alleged clean up photographs. Needless to say such a technique would have required years.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-12-21 22:30:53
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Hard to find good old photos of one of our oldest established cities.
South Station, Trinity Church, great molasses floods...
Quite a rich and sticky sweet history. Also caramelized and burned up.
Maybe our highways and roads are made of old pulverized city remains. And all of the old glue is the casualties. Then needed to push petroleum because using dead bodies was going out of fashion.

 

[Plissken]

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Username: Plissken
Date: 2019-12-21 23:14:59
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In 1973, disaster struck again when the Second Great Chelsea Fire burned 18 city blocks, leaving nearly a fifth of the city in ashes. Both fires originated in Chelsea's “rag shop district,” cluttered streets filled with junk shops hawking scraps, metal, and combustible items. Wood-frame buildings and three- to six-family houses were built tightly together, and quickly caught fire.[11]

You think they would have learned their lesson the first time. Another interesting thing in el-ite-apedia: Before the first fire there was an influx of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe and before the second fire an influx of Hispanic immigrants.

Plissken

 

[Felix Noille]

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Username: Felixnoille
Date: 2019-12-22 11:07:38
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It's remarkable that there are none of the usual fake flames and smoke photos they love to show.

In the photo labelled 'Broadway looking south, Chelsea, Mass', it amazes me that the all the telegraph poles have survived (must be tougher than granite). There's even a bloke up a ladder stringing the cables up... or are we seeing something else? Is this the new population arriving as the telegraph service is being installed? It doesn't make sense that new poles are being installed to replace any that were burnt in the fire if these are supposed to be homeless people leaving the area just after it happened... mind you if they can burn granite then whacking up a few poles in 10 minutes would be child's play.

In the 'Evacuation or Looting?' photo there's no fire damage anywhere. Could this also be the arrival of the replacement population?

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-12-22 16:16:16
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My other inspiration was, since the death tolls are so negligible during these things, that they evacuated the cities for destruction. Start a little fire... Get everybody out and blow the hell out of it.
They always seem to be watching from just outside of town.

 

[Timeshifter]

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Username: Timeshifter
Date: 2019-12-22 19:57:40
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Granite destroyed but trees a bit blackened but otherwise standing.. as with all these 'fires' even contemporary fires.

Humans, master fire for 1000s of years, then suddey inth 1800s onwards loses the knowedge to master it, and burns everything down..

Fire or something else?

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-12-22 20:58:48
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Seems Chelsea had a much more recent 'great fire'. 1973 to be a bit more precise.
From here Chelsea recalls 1973 blaze that destroyed 18 blocks - The Boston Globe

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-12-23 06:31:02
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Are these 1973 photographs even real?

FotoForensics

1973 Wikipedia page is priceless:

• The Second Great Chelsea fire was a conflagration that occurred on October 14, 1973, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The fire burned 18 acres (7.3 ha), and was spread by strong winds and a lack of adequate water supply in the neighborhood of the fire. The fire started 200 yards (180 m) away from the origin of the Great Chelsea Fire of 1908.
• No lives were lost in the fire; however, 1,000 people were displaced and 300 homes were burned down.
• That's it.

Reminds me of the 2017 events in California.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-12-23 09:34:30
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Are these 1973 photographs even real?

Real as in 1973 vintage. Real as in undoctored pictures of the 1973 fire?
When startpage first served them up they looked to me as though they were 1973 vintage going of the clothing and equipment, Then the last one you picked out appeared and I thought wonder if that's a superimposed image from the first fire.
The image to the structure beihind those heads is the same as the earlier fire. The sky is 'greyed out' in the same way. The standing remains look the same as does the fallen bricks.
For all I know, for all anyone knows all the images of the earlier fire are actually of the 1973 fire played about with once in digital form.
Once again it comes down to physically going into the archives and looking at the source be it negative, glass slide or oldest surviving print to get a real handle on what's in them.
Courtesy if gibiru search string 1973 fire chelsea ma
46 photographs of the 1973 fire. Sadly even via a proxy I cannot see 44 of them! Historical photos: Great Chelsea fire of 1973
Here's the two I can see.

Another interesting site about the 1973 fire including a report about it in pdf form. From the Fire Engineering Vault: Chelsea (MA) Conflagration - Fire Engineering

 

[Archive]

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Username: Banta
Date: 2019-12-23 18:51:34
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Pictures are loading for me:

Poles and wires immune to fire, as one would expect by now.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-12-23 19:13:35
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Pictures are loading for me:

That's because it isn't blocked for 'legal reasons' in the United States. Thanks for posting these.

 

[Otto_Didactic]

After seeing your thread I did my own follow up, So Boston is just across the harbor and had a Great Fire in 1872, so they say but the dates on the fires are doubtlessly wrong. Boston was an urban quarry, just assuming the date and context is accurate we have another set of ruins a few miles away. The Chelsea fire is a theme park, couples strolling hand in hand gazing at the ruins, they even have a piano set up for entertainment, and trolley rides. Later the place was written off as a fire but its the same event as boston and haverhill. The entire Merrimack Valley was ruined... Past that is the Susquehanna Valley we have Williamport, Shiremanstown, Milton, Harrisburg, Sommerset to name a few, all burnt to the ground within a few years of each other each isolated, random and disconnected from the rest. My ass!
Chelsea Fire Disaster Tourism