Looking southeast from Continental Trust building

Baltimore, Maryland

February 1904

Unidentified photographer

The Great Baltimore Fire Photograph Collection

PP179.174

Full image with detail.

Maryland National Guard, Great Baltimore Fire of 1904

Baltimore, Maryland

February 1904

Unidentified photographer

Subject Vertical File

SVF (Baltimore - Fires & Explosions)

Full image and detail.

Burnt District map, The Sun Magazine (detail)

1904

The Great Baltimore Fire Photograph Collection

PP179.727



It’s the 110th Anniversary of The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 started on Sunday, February 7, at 10:48 a.m. with a fire alarm sounding the Hurst Building, Liberty Street and Hopkins Place on the south side of German Street (now Redwood Street). The fire would continue until approximately 5 p.m. Monday. The Great Fire was the largest municipal disaster in American history up until that time. The cause of the fire has been speculated as beginning with a discarded cigarette or cigar butt falling through a two-inch hole in a glass deadlight in the sidewalk above the basement of the Hurst Building.

Brisk winter winds spread the fire easily, and suddenly Baltimore’s fire department realized that they would not be able to contain the disaster solely and help from the surrounding area, including Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, was requested. The fire destroyed 86 blocks and resulted in one direct fatality from the fire and four fatalities from illness attributed to the fire. More than $70 million in property loses were reported.