The morning Oakland burned (part 2)

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Note: This is the second of two articles about the Great Oakland Fire of 1898.

As a fire rampaged through Oakland, Md., during the morning of July 12, 1898, the townspeople had formed a bucket brigade to fight the fire. The fire department had a chemical engine that was also being used to try to put out the fire. It was overwhelming, and Oakland Mayor R. S. Jamison telegraphed Mayor George A. Kean of Cumberland for help. Kean promised to send a fire company, but that help would be hours away.

Jamison’s message may have been one of the last to get out of Oakland before the fire burned down three telegraph poles, taking the wire with it. A correspondent with the Warren (Pa.) Democrat had been transmitting a story to the newspaper when he had lost communications. The message read, “A fire started in the largest general store here, the flames spreading rapidly. Half the town is threatened, the street being blocked with poles burning.” It had then ended unfinished.

Meanwhile, the group trying to stop the fire at the J. M. Davis & Son store was having a rough time.

“Here the fight centered for half an hour through smoke and flame, with arms and faces blistered from the intense heat, fighting against almost a forlorn hope, with increasing tension to the nerves but with no flagging or hanging backward, men and women, boys and girls, gave willing assistance and after the front of the Davis store had been burned through in a hundred places with broken glass falling and cinders hurtling through the air, men of bravery and with that determination of purpose which has always denoted the citizens of Oakland, the victory was won and thousands of dollars’ worth of valuable property, and probably valuable lives, were saved,” The Republican reported.

The bucket brigade was crucial in saving the Davis Building. When the chemical engine had run dry and needed to be refilled, only the work of the bucket brigade that had kept the fire from advancing.

The help from Cumberland arrived at 7:30 a.m. after the fire had been contained. Kean had called out the 25 men, an engine, and hose reel, and loaded them on a flat car with a passenger coach attached. The special B&O Railroad train left Cumberland at 6:05 a.m. When the train passed through Piedmont, a company of firefighters there boarded the train to help fight the fire.

When the firefighters arrived in Oakland, they set up their hoses to draw water from the Little Yough to douse the embers of what had been part of Oakland’s business district. It took another three hours before the firefighters were satisfied that the fire was entirely out.

Communications outside of Oakland had been cut off for an hour until telegraph wire could be restrung. Regular trains along the B&O were delayed until the tracks were inspected to make sure that the fire hadn’t damaged them.

In all, the fire damaged or destroyed 16 businesses and buildings. The initial damage report totaled more than $50,000 (about $2.5 million in today’s dollars), and insurance covered only $19,900 of the damage.

The displaced businesses found other locations to operate from until new buildings could be built. Some rented a room at the Central Hotel to use as a business office. The hotel had been saved from damage in the fire by the large trees in front. Those trees had caught the embers sailing through the air that might have caught the hotel on fire. Benjamin Sincell allowed James Litzinger to operate his Mountain Democrat newspaper from The Republican offices until Litzinger could find a permanent office.

A Baltimore newspaper reported that an arsonist had set the fire. The investigation ruled that out as the cause but did not state what had caused the massive fire.

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