"The Great Baltimore Fire" raged out of control for about 30 hours on Sunday and Monday, February 7 and 8, 1904, destroying most of downtown Baltimore's business district. It consumed more than 70 blocks and burned out more than 2,500 businesses, leaving approximately 35,000 people temporarily jobless. In all, 1,526 buildings and four large lumberyards were destroyed in what came to be called the Burnt District. Baltimore subsequently undertook a major effort to rebuild and modernize the city.

Firemen douse smoldering buildings near where the fire began.

Maryland Historical Society

The fire probably started when a carelessly discarded cigarette or cigar butt fell through a two-inch broken glass opening in the sidewalk above the basement of the John E. Hurst building, a wholesale clothing warehouse located on the south side of German Street between Liberty Street and Hopkins Place. The smoldering fire activated a thermostat alarm at 10:48 Sunday morning, and firefighters responded immediately. Approximately five minutes later a smoke explosion propelled firebrands through nearby windows, igniting seven additional buildings. Chief George W. Horton arrived on the scene around 11 a.m. and deployed his firefighting units as the fire spread to the north and east. Quickly realizing the need for help, he appealed to the Washington, DC, fire department. Unfortunately, Chief Horton was disabled within an hour after his arrival when a falling trolley wire burned him as he stood at the corner of Liberty and Baltimore Streets. Subsequently, District Engineer August Emrich assumed command until Monday afternoon, February 8, when Chief Horton returned.

Mayor Robert M. McLane Jr., 36, seemed to have control of the crisis from the start. Yet, as he became more involved in choosing strategies for fighting the fire-a role he was ill-equipped to fill-McLane began to make some disastrous decisions. With Chief Horton's injury and evacuation from the fire scene, McLane worked with August Emrich, a much younger and less experienced firefighter. McLane at the urging of well-intentioned advisors approved the dynamiting of buildings to try to stem the fire's advance-a tactic that a seasoned fire chief like Horton would not have undertaken. Instead of providing the intended fire break to stop the fire's advance, the explosions spread the fire by breaking the windows of nearby buildings and igniting them.

The fire burns along the waterfront, late Monday afternoon.

Maryland Historical Society

Washington's firefighters raced by rail to Baltimore in a near-record 38 minutes, arriving at 1:30 p.m., only to find that the District's hose couplings would not fit Baltimore's hydrants. They futilely attempted to remedy the situation by wrapping canvas bandages around the hose couplings. Before the fire was over, nineteen fire departments from the mid-Atlantic states joined the fight to extinguish Baltimore's Great Fire including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and New York City. The Baltimore police and the Maryland National Guard also made great contributions. When the wind shifted Sunday night, blowing toward the east and southeast at about 30 miles per hour, the fire roared through the financial district, consuming many of Baltimore's investment and insurance companies and banks. Flames eventually jumped the north-south Jones Falls waterway but were brought under control while firefighters concurrently fought spectacular fires on piers adjacent to Pratt Street. The combined efforts of the many different groups of firefighters finally brought the Great Baltimore Fire under control about 5 p.m. on Monday.

One person, an African American resident of Baltimore, died in the flames, and two Maryland National Guardsmen and two firefighters, one from New York and one from Baltimore, died of pneumonia afterward. The fire traveled over 140 acres and destroyed almost the entire area that Baltimore's city founders had laid out in 1729.

Petersen, Peter B. The Great Baltimore Fire. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2004.

Williams, Harold A. Baltimore Afire. 1954; repr. Baltimore: Schneidereith & Sons, 1979.