Jacksonville, Florida Fire of 1901
On the afternoon of May 3, 1901, workers outside the Cleaveland Fibre Factory noticed a pile of Spanish Moss which had been left to dry was smoldering. Efforts to put out the burgeoning fire failed and the wind was soon carrying smoldering embers across town, which had been suffering through a drought.
Wooden shingled roofs began catching fire in the path of the wind and within a short time houses across the city were in flames. The fires burned for the next eight hours. The combination of dry conditions and wooden houses led the conflagration to destroy over 2,300 houses and other buildings.
146 blocks of the city were destroyed. Only one church within the city survived the fire – Saint Andrews, built of brick. All of Duval County’s real estate records up to the time of the fire were destroyed along with the county courthouse.
More than 10,000 people were homeless as a result of the fire, and there were at least seven deaths. Martial law was quickly declared and the city began the process of reconstruction. During the recovery period, allegations of racism directed at the authorities over the efforts to control the fire began. James Weldon Johnson later accused the authorities of ignoring the fire in predominantly black neighborhoods in order to concentrate their efforts saving white neighborhoods. The city emphatically denied the charges.
Somewhat ironically one of the few structures to survive in the burned area was Hemming’s Confederate Monument in Hemming Park.
You May Also Interested: Deadliest Prison and Asylum Fires of All Time.