The great fire of Baltimore began just before 10:45, Sunday morning, February 7, 1904, in the basement of a six-story brick building occupied by J. E. Hurst & Company, a wholesale drygoods firm. Fire engines immediately responded to an automatic, thermostatic alarm. Before they could be put into service against the flames, however, the building mysteriously exploded, and suddenly six adjacent buildings were also fiercely burning. Soon there were more explosions. These created a skyful of sparks and firebrands that set fire to still more buildings, sending the flames leaping from street to street.

Scarcely hindered by the more than twelve hundred firemen ultimately called in to fight it, the fire became a conflagration that roared for more than twenty-five hours, engulfing most of Baltimore's central business district. Like the great Boston fire, it never grew to more than a fraction of the size of the great Chicago fire. It still, however, consumed nearly one hundred and forty acres, more than twice the acreage of the Boston fire, in less than two-thirds of the time (see Figure 8.1). It gutted eighty-six city blocks containing 1,526 buildings, burning out more than 2,400 businesses, including twenty banks, eight large hotels, nine newspapers, dozens of large corporate offices, and hundreds of wholesale and retail grocery, produce, boot and shoe, clothing, and drygoods dealers. It barely touched the residential city.