Atlanta, Georgia, USA
1917 - May 21 - The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 takes place.

Fire In Atlanta Razes 100 Blocks; Loss $2,000,000
Wide Residence Area in Northeast Swept by Flames Starting in Storage Building.
Soldiers Called To Aid
Dynamite Used Vainly to Prevent Blaze Reaching Mansions on Ponce de Leon Av.
Firemen Finally Check It
Thousands Left Homeless, but City Cares for Them-One Woman Dies from Shock.

Atlanta, Ga., May 21. - Fire that started late this afternoon in an obscure negro section at Decatur and Fort Streets swept a broad path through the residential section of Atlanta, devastating scores of blocks and destroying many of the city’s finest homes and hundreds of negro houses. Although the flames were not under complete control tonight, they have been checked half way through the exclusive Ponce de Leon Avenue residence section and fire officials believed there was little danger of a further spread to any extent.

First estimates of the damage place it at $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. So far as can be learned, the only life lost is that of a woman who died from shock.

The fire was confined to the northeastern part of the city, and the only business houses burned were several warehouses near the point of origin. In a rough estimate it is thought that fully 100 blocks were laid waste.

A high wind carried the flames with a speed that outran the efforts of the Fire Department. Within an hour after the first alarm the fire began to assume the proportions of a conflagration, and fire officials called in several hundred men from Fort McPherson Officers Training Camp to aid in the fight. Appeals for help brought fire equipment from half a dozen neighboring cities.

The dramatic struggle with the flames reached a climax at nightfall, when the fire fighters made a strong stand at Boulevard Place and began dynamiting a wide area to protect the Ponce de Leon section. This effort was only partially successful, and an hour later the dynamiters had to begin work over again at one point two block beyond the avenue.

The soldiers, firemen and private citizens blew up whole blocks of houses. Now and then a home on the north side of Ponce de Leon Avenue would catch fire, but for almost two hours these outbreaks were stopped. Then the flames gained a foothold across the street, swept on a block to Vedo Way, and moved slowly on in a northeasterly direction. Late tonight, however, Fire Chief Cody announced that the fire had been brought under control.

Several hundred buckets were rushed to Ponce de Leon Avenue when the fight centered there. Each soldier was supplied with one and whenever a tiny blaze started on a roof it was quickly extinguished. The presence of soldiers directing traffic, guarding household goods, and keeping people from the danger zone gave the appearance of martial law.

Started In A Storage Plant.

The blaze started in the Skinner Storage Company’s building on Decatur Street, east of Fort. It burned several blocks of surrounding small houses clean, jumped over five low brick buildings and a row of small shacks, and then swept on into the better residence sections. A large part of the devastation, however, was in the neighborhoods composed largely of homes ranging in value from $2,500 to $6,000.

Some of the most serious losses were in the section where dynamite was used, scores of pretty homes in a comparatively new district of the city being blown up in the hope of checking the advance of the flames.

Between Edgewood Avenue and Decatur Street, at the start of the fire, the flames confined themselves to the section between Boulevard and Hilliard Street. At Edgewood they moved eastward as far as Prospect place in spots, wiping out a block now and then. Practically the entire section, bounded by Hilliard Street on the west, Prospect Place on the east, Edgewood Avenue on the south, and North Avenue on the north, was laid waste.

At North Avenue, North Jackson Street became the western boundary, and with a slight change in the wind the fire moved steadily on in a northeasterly direction. It never got nearer than seven blocks to Peachtree Street, the main thoroughfare of the city, although at times a momentary change of wind threatened in that direction.

Three Fires Burning At Once.

Firemen were fighting a small blaze in the big Atlanta cotton warehouse, where military supplies are stored, and at the same time six residences in West End were burning, when the alarm came in from Decatur Street. As many companies as could be spared were sent to that section, but it is doubtful if the entire department could have checked the conflagration developing there under the high wind.

The fact that three fires were burning at practically the same time started vague reports that incendiaries were at work.

A Great Exodus.

The wide area in the sweep of the flames was a scene of indescribable confusion. The flames moved in some instances as steadily as a man would walk, but householders kept ahead of its march and in this way no one, as far as known, was trapped in a burning house.

As soon as the blaze crossed into the white residence section the people in its path seemed quickly to realize their danger and the departure of families in every kind of conveyance began. Gradually as the fire advanced the streets became a jumble of carts, automobiles and trucks piled high with furniture and bedding. Babies rode atop huge delivery wagons with their mothers holding handfuls of quickly snatched belongings. Men in their shirtsleeves, who had fought the fire on neighboring houses, believing that it would not reach their own homes, escaped with only the clothes they wore, and many finally were forced to seek a safety zone to hunt for hours for their families who had preceded them out of the burning area.

Many houses surrounded by flames, collapsed in heaps, it was said, before the fire actually reached them. Several street cars, stalled by lack of power, were caught in the path and consumed, and hundreds of trunks and piles of furniture, dragged into the streets, met with the same fate.

Vagaries of the wind caused great alarm in sections that afterward proved safe, and tonight for blocks on all sides of the area of destruction household goods were piled in every open place. These were guarded in most cases by National Guardsmen, who also were pressed into all kinds of work.

Considering the confusion and the speed with which the fire spread the small number of casualties reported is regarded as unusual. Only about sixty persons were listed tonight as having been taken to hospitals. The one death reported was that of Miss Bessie Hodges, who dies of shock. Many of those taken to hospitals were suffering from shock, heat prostration, or minor injuries.

Mayor Candler issued a statement tonight saying that outside offers to help would be unnecessary.

“Atlanta greatly appreciates the offers of aid that already have come, but we can handle the relief situation without it.” said the Mayor. He added that he had investigated the reports that the fire was incendiary origin, and found that “there is nothing whatever to support that theory.”

Relief Work Quickly Begun.

Thousands of homeless were being cared for tonight by a Citizen’s Committee and the Atlanta Red Cross Chapter. Most of them were quartered in public buildings.

The fire had swept over only a few blocks before relief measures were undertaken by the Red Cross and the associated charities, while the other societies and hundreds of individuals volunteered for the work.

Food was provided at the Armory for 5,000 people. Army trucks, express wagons, and private automobiles were pressed into service to handle the foodstuffs.

Hundreds of negroes whose houses were swept by the flames are left destitute. The large building of the negro Odd Fellows was filled with cots, and negro churches threw open their doors to negro sleeper. Many negroes were housed in private homes.

The New York Times
New York, New York
May 22, 1917

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