From Dan Nash: Heres a fact not many people are aware of: On August 13, 1893, Minneapolis came the closest it ever came to a devastating conflagration. On that hot, dry, windy Sunday afternoon, fire broke out in a wagon factory on Nicollet Island and quickly spread to several other factories. While firefighters worked to contain this fire, the wind carried sparks and embers northwestward, where they started a new fire in a lumber yard on Boom Island. Before the fire department could redeploy its resources, the fire had jumped the channel separating Boom Island from the mainland. The fire then began moving northward through blocks of lumber mills, lumber stacks, and houses. The fire department finally managed to stop the fires progress at 13th Avenue NE and Marshall St. By the time it was all over, the fire had destroyed about 170 buildings and several lumber yards over an area of at least 23 square blocks. (Source: Mill City Firefighters, the First Hundred Years, by Richard Heath.)
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:54:29 +0000
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