#PrescottAZHistory: Jerome's Great Fire of 1898

One year before the fire;
almost all of this would be destroyed.

The Journal-Miner described it as “one of the greatest calamities in the loss of human lives and destruction of property that has ever occurred in the territory, and it may also be said in the West.”

Just before 7AM, Sunday September 11, 1898, the first fire alarm rang. A “shack” in the Italian quarter, in back of the Grand View hotel was engulfed in flames, but as people were first arriving to fight the blaze, it was already spreading with shocking speed, “licking up building after building,” the paper described. “The flames swept with such rapidity and fury, that it was simply bewildering.” Firefighters stared in dumbfounded horror as they didn’t know where to start. “Strong and brave men faltered in performing [their] solemn duty…but in the frightful scenes which faced them [they hesitated].”

By 9AM, in the stretch of two short hours, five full blocks were nothing more than a smoldering ruin. Witnesses described it as a “horrible panorama” as the fire spread in a half-dozen different directions. The immense heat alone caused combustion where flames had not yet touched. “Nothing was spared,” the paper continued. “Structures of the most substantial and approved material were consumed as though they were tissue.”

The wind carried burning embers as far as 200 yards igniting house after house—even wagons caught fire this way. “Dynamite was resorted to, but it availed nothing,” the paper explained. “The water supply was inadequate and was only effective on a few remote and isolated buildings.”

“The scenes enacted are said to have been pitiable in the extreme,” the paper described, “particularly so among women, [who] watched in tears [as] their homes [went] up in smoke. Little children clung to their mothers in terror of the dire calamity.” Most of the 2500 residents now owned nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

“Many men and some children are missing,” the paper reported. Eight charred bodies of unidentified people were found initially, and it was feared that the number would double. The United Verde company lost at least 50 rental homes that were valued at $2000 each. Also lost was the hospital. “Much merchandise and other valuable goods were removed to places on the hillside," but the heat became so intense that they still caught fire. Nearly everything was destroyed in the end. Even the brush on Cleopatra mountain was burned all the way up to the peak.

One man lost $1800 in paper money when his wallet fell onto the floor of a burning building as jumped out of the window to save his life.

ALSO ENJOY: Humboldt Suffers Two Conflagrations in Three Weeks

The story of two disastrous fires that occurred in Humboldt, AZ only three weeks apart in the summer of 1910.

Most buildings only had nominal or no insurance coverage. The Connor Hotel was valued at $40,000 (or $1.4 million today.) Other destroyed hotels included: Grand View hotel, $25,000 ($850,000 today); the Jerome hotel $20,000 ($678,000 today); the St. Charles hotel $6500 ($220,000 today); and Mrs. Boyd’s boarding house $6000 (over $200,000 today.)

Con O’Keefe, owner of one of the biggest mercantiles in town, lost $50,000 ($1.7 million today.) In fact, over 200 businesses of all types were complete losses.

Many versions of how the conflagration started were bandied about immediately. One of the most popular theories was cited by the Journal-Miner: “the most acceptable [version] is that a company of Italians were having a ‘blow out’ that night and in the course of their carousals, threw lighted cigarettes around carelessly, one of which ignited some waste paper near a can of gasoline which caused an explosion and set the building on fire.”

As popular as this theory of origin was, the owner of the suspected house wrote the Journal-Miner insisting that his place was not where the blaze started. He insisted that no one was in a drunken row there and there was neither gasoline nor a gas stove on the premises to explode.

Fifty refugees from Jerome arrived in Prescott—mostly women and children. “In each and every case so far in arrivals, nothing but the backs of sufferers is to be seen. They tell the story over and over again that the town is wiped out, and with it, they also have lost it all." Still, building contracts were being signed even as the embers continued smoldering.

Prescott’s response to her sister-city’s catastrophe was both immediate and compassionate. “The Bashford-Burmister Co., Sam Hill, and other [Prescott merchants] have sent over 100 tents to the scene, and in addition to that…a subscription is being circulated and liberally engaged,” the Journal-Miner reported. A meeting of sympathetic Prescottonians was held at the Hotel Burke. It was decided that five prominent men would travel to Jerome the next morning “and report by wire the condition and needs of the people to fellow committeemen, who would immediately act and forward them the necessities desired,” the paper explained. A telegram was sent to the crippled town: “If the sufferers of the Jerome fire are in need of assistance, the people of Prescott are ready and willing to do all in their power. Answer immediately."

When the committee returned from Jerome, they reported that there was already “a small army of men preparing to rebuild on the burned district.”

In total, the loss was listed at $366,200 (or nearly $12.5 million today,) of which only $113,750 (or $3.85 million today) was covered by insurance.

Map of Jerome, 4 months before the fire.

(CLICK HERE for the Library of Congress zoomable version)

One of the heroes of he catastrophe was Dr. EW Dutcher whose burns were severe enough for him to develop cerebral spinal meningitis and his ultimate death. “His death, under the circumstances, has caused a universal feeling of sadness to pervade the town,” the Journal-Miner wrote, “as he gave himself as a sacrifice in trying to save the property and lives of others.” From the start, Dutcher thought his wounds would be fatal, and he specifically asked that his daughter, (to whom he was greatly devoted,) NOT to be sent for, so her memory of him would be “as he was in health and not as he [now] was, disfigured by his injuries.”

The United Verde copper company constructed several temporary houses for their employees which were to be later replaced by “substantial and neat cottages.”

“So many new buildings are in course of construction in Jerome that the town is beginning to take shape again,” the Arizona Republic reported. “Contracts have been let for the erection of many fine buildings in the near future.” Several businesses would now build concrete structures. The Merrill Bros. Mercantile replaced its building with a stone and brick structure with an added third floor for offices and lodgings.

“Lumber is coming into Jerome thick and fast,” the same paper observed, “and new buildings are going up in all directions. The secret societies who lost all their property in the recent fire are active in taking steps toward again fitting themselves out for the transaction of work.”

“Photographs of the town before the fire are bringing big premiums,” the Journal-Miner reported. “Dr. Hawkins collection of views was entirely destroyed and the negatives consumed in the flames.”

As the town was rebuilding, “several of the property holders on Main Street [talked about] setting their buildings back farther than before when they rebuild, which will straighten out the street and make it wider,” the Weekly Republican revealed. Dave Conner asserted that his new hotel building would be far superior to the old one. His rebuild still stands. Con O’Keefe would replace his old mercantile building with one three stories tall.

By mid-October, one visitor described Jerome as “the busiest place he ever saw. It is a hotter town than it was during the fire!” he exclaimed. The new livery stable would be complete in no more than twenty days.

By the end of October, the town of Jerome single-handedly consumed all the area’s ready cut lumber. Dozens of buildings were waiting for material, but this shortage would soon be corrected, and by the end of the year Jerome was back to its bustling self.

15 months after the fire,
Jerome more than recovered!

ALSO ENJOY: 1888: Prescott's Great Fire Before the Great Fire

The story of the July 1, 1888 disastrous fire that destroyed Cortez Street in Prescott, AZ.

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