Galleries - Fall River Fire of 1928

The "worst fire in Fall River's history" began at 5:45 PM on February 2, 1928. A newspaper employee was the first to spot the blaze in the back of the Pocasset Mill. The old mill was being dismantled and the workmen had recently quit work for the day.

click on map to view fire's devastation

Within an hour the historic Granite Block, housing offices, legal documents, and shops, seemed doomed. There was a concerted effort by the owners of these businesses to save whatever they could from the impending conflagration.

The following enthralling description of the great fire comes from a booklet that was published soon after the event:

"Soon after 7 o'clock fire apparatus from surrounding cities and towns was arriving and taking up posts within the threatened zone. A brisk southwest wind was not to be denied, however, and even while departments from as far away as Boston were rushing help to the scene, flames crossed Central street and swept on to the Mohican Hotel and Rialto Theater.

Then, as though to flaunt in the face of man his inability to cope with nature, the wind veered to the west, driving the devastating fire across North Main street and quickly enveloping the Wilbur House and structures to the north as far as the fire wall of the Globe Building.

The buildings to the north side of Bedford Street, across Purchase street and to the very eaves of the Central Police Station, were in flames almost in less time than the facts can be related.

Then once again the fickle wind lent its aid on the side of the demon fire. Swinging into the northwest, it swept back across Bedford street, this time east of North Main, carrying with it a front of solid flame that soon left the Union Savings Bank and Citizens' Savings Bank buildings mere blackened shells.

All this time the mercury had been dropping to a record low mark for the season. Fireman faced a blistering heat in their faces even as their shoulders were burdened by a constantly increasing ice mantle. Bulky lines of hose became so frozen that they were almost as difficult to handle as the steel beams that were buckling before the infernos raging within the buildings.

Crumbled piles of jagged masonry that littered the streets where the firemen fought on with their apparently hopeless battle, were traversed only with constant menace to life and limb, their ice coating making any sort of progress slow and difficult.

Of the heroism displayed by the Fall River firemen and host of co-workers from other cities and towns, who for hours literally fought with their backs to the wall, volumes could be written. The same could be said of the police, National Guardsmen and Naval Reservists, who took up positions under tottering walls and in a deluge of icy water, that the lives of the constantly increasing crowd of spectators might not be endangered.

With the very heart of the city a seething furnace, large fire brands were hurtled high into the air to be carried miles away by the near zero winds. While the main fire fighting force was grouped in the center of the city, reserve units outside of the lines dashed here and there as fiery embers dropped on unprotected roofs and added to the danger of a general conflagration.

Just at a time when the situation seemed hopeless, man apparently gained a brief respite over the elements. The handsome stone building of the Massasoit-Pocasset National Bank had thus far been spared. If it could be saved there was hope for the City Hall and easterly section of the city. Suddenly it blazed up like a kerosene torch. This was shortly before 2 o'clock. City Hall and the wooden buildings to the east seemed doomed.

As the Allied troops fought shoulder to shoulder to save Paris, so the fire fighters attacked the flames that spread through the bank building. Gradually man and water began to conquer fire and wind. By 3 o'clock on the morning of February 3rd, nine hours after the start of the fire, it was apparent that it had been 'stopped.' There was still no rest for the exhausted fireman, however. Various buildings in scattered sections of the area were still blazing furiously and it was not until Saturday noon, nearly two days after its start, that the fire was officially declared out.

At the time of going to press estimates of the damage ranged from $4,000,000 to $35,000,000, with the middle ground being approximately $15,000,000, a figure which many Fall River business men seemed to place as a conservative estimate."