Burlington Firefighting

Liisa Reimann

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781439618110
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Burlington Firefighting richly illustrates the triumphs and tragedies, the hauntings and secrets of the Burlington Fire Department. Originating as a series of bucket brigades, the fire department developed from competing companies that served as elite social clubs into a professional organization that was incorporated in 1895. The transitions from hand-drawn to horse-drawn carts and pumpers to steam engines and motorized trucks largely shaped the evolution of firefighting in Vermont as a whole.

Seven

FIRES

The Hotel Burlington and Walker Block, on the corner of St. Paul and Main Streets, succumbed to fire on January 8, 1910. The Burlington Free Press reported that not since President Taft’s visit to the city the previous July had so many people gathered in a single location. The fire started in a sink room on the third floor of the hotel and spread rapidly, entering the adjoining Walker Block through what was thought to be a fireproof brick wall. Tenants within the Walker Block did not evacuate their belongings, as firefighters at the scene assured them that the structure would not burn. Unexpectedly, they lost everything. Five firefighters, including Assistant Chief George Burt, caught by surprise and trapped on the roof of the burning building, had to be rescued.

The fire that devastated the Hotel Burlington and the Walker Block burned for 20 minutes before fire crews arrived. Hotel employees had tried to put the blaze out themselves first, but a strong south wind thwarted their attempts. Six hours of the fire department’s best efforts could not save the buildings. Peter Ashline, on shift at Station 4 that day, suffered grave burns to his neck and chest. An unidentified woman narrowly missed serious injury when she failed to hear the clanging alarm bell of the exercise wagon, returning to the scene after retrieving more hose. At the last minute she realized her predicament, but slipped and fell while attempting to get out of the wagon’s path. Fortunately the driver was able to rein the horses to one side and avoid trampling the woman.

Fires have historically reshaped entire communities. In Burlington, fire and urban renewal are arguably the two greatest factors responsible for the loss of integral structures. The prevalence of fires in Burlington’s increasingly dense downtown such as this one, which destroyed the Parkhill Block, prompted the city to establish an inner-city fire district mandating that all new construction be of noncombustible materials.

In the 1880s, Burlington’s lumberyards employed approximately 1,000 people and exported products to Europe, South America, and the Pacific. They also supplied the local New England area with a large variety of lumber and produced vast amounts of doors, blinds, and sashes. The Shepard and Morse Lumber Mill burned on February 19, 1913.

A previous fire occurred at Shepard and Morse in July 1910. It originated in a building that housed the boilers, shavings store room, and machine shop. Fanned by winds from a freak tornado, it spread quickly through piles of shavings. Although it engaged firefighters for many hours, the blaze caused relatively little damage.

On February 19, 1913, hundreds of spectators watch the Shepard and Morse Lumber Mill burn.

Shown is the aftermath of the Sugar Factory Fire of April 1918. Located on Flynn Avenue in the south of the city, the Chocolate and Maple Sugar Factory Company of Vermont was completely devastated by the blaze.

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