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| (From the Davenport Democrat. August 7, 1901) |
The largest fire in Davenport’s history swept through the city’s riverfront district on July 26, 1901. Twenty acres of homes and businesses were swept away in the conflagration.
The Weyerhaeuser and
Denkmann Lumber Yards were burnt to the ground. Two hundred people lost their
homes, and nearly one hundred eighty men at the lumber yard lost their jobs.
“A strong wind fanned
the flames, reported The Moline Dispatch. “They shot hundreds of feet
into the air. Then, they jumped across streets and alleys and rushed forward
with the force of a monster blast furnace.”[1]
Everything from the
foot of Federal Street to Oneida Street lay in ruins. The flames were so
hot the rails melted, and the ends flung themselves in the air like “snakeheads.”
They stood up over a foot in some places. All that remained of the wooden
sidewalks were ashes.
The telephone lines
were out for nearly a week as the company raced to replace the burnt poles and
restring their wires. The trolley line replaced two blocks of tracks, most of
the poles and wires that powered their lines, and railroad traffic was
disrupted for weeks.
The bricks on East
River Street were gone from their places “as though they had popped out of
their beds like so much corn.”[2] Many more bricks were
shattered, most likely from the cold water thrown on them.
For a while, it was thought the Standard Oil Company storage tanks would burn. The company dumped large quantities of oil in the sewers rather than let it burn should the tanks catch fire.[3] Fortunately, the flames missed them.
The overall loss was
estimated at $600,000; the mill alone was valued at $281,000. However, some
sources reported the losses would easily top one million dollars.
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| (From the Davenport Democrat. August 7, 1901) |
Many people were left
with just the clothes on their backs. A lucky few managed to carry away a few
trinkets before the flames consumed their homes.
W. D. Reimers,
superintendent of the Weyerhaeuser and Denkmann Mill, blamed the loss of the
mill on the low pressure in the city’s water lines. “The pressure was not heavy
enough to throw a stream fifty feet,” he said. “And we couldn’t get close
enough to throw water on the oncoming wall of fire.”[4]
He told reporters the
mill’s workers battled the fire as long as they could, but finally, they were
forced to drop their hoses and run for their lives.
Reimers ran to his
house on Case Street, but the “flames followed him faster than he could run.”
He pulled his wife from the bathtub, and they escaped as the house burst into
flames.
People in the path of
the flames did what they could to save their homes, but most were forced to
flee empty-handed.
The Davenport
Democrat proclaimed Ada Hurd “the luckiest person in the path of the
fire.” Ada busted out her garden hose when she spotted the flames and wetted
down her house. And then, whenever a flaming ember came near the structure, she
extinguished it.
Finally, when the fire
came too close, Ada grabbed what she could and headed for safer ground. When
she returned, she was glad to find her house untouched.[5]
The best advice the Davenport
Democrat could give its readers after the fire was to plant trees. And
then plant more of them. Trees were the “most efficient” and “cheapest” barricade
to keep fire away from your home.[6]
“The only thing that
checked the advance of the main fire,” said the paper, “was the wide green
space of the Renwick property and St. Katharine’s Hall.” There were no trees
behind the Robert’s Company plant. So, once the flames got started there,
nothing could stop them.[7]
The paper wrapped
up its reporting by saying, “there never was a time when the fire was under
control. It ran away at the start, and it was never checked except at its
outskirts. It was not got under control but burned itself out.
“All the hoses in Iowa
played on that crater of fire would not have been felt. Time and again, it was
seen that the stream from a nozzle was licked up by the flame before it fell on
the fire. The water never got a chance to fall on the burning wood. It was
vaporized in the air.”[8]
Fortunately, no one
lost their life in the fire. The mill placed many workers at their Rock Island
plant in the following weeks while the townspeople rebuilt their homes.
[1]
The Dispatch. July 26, 1901.
[2]
Davenport Democrat. July 28, 1901.
[3]
Muscatine Journal. July 26, 1901.
[4]
The Daily Times. July 26, 1901.
[5]
Davenport Democrat. July 28, 1901.
[6]
Davenport Democrat. July 28, 1901.
[7]
Davenport Democtat. July 26, 1901.
[8]
Davenport Democrat. July 26, 1901.
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