Mobile, Alabama Fire
May 21, 1919
1919—FIRE DESTROYS 40 CITY BLOCKS
IN THE YARD of Howard
Cunningham’s meat market-grocery,
located on the northeast corner of Madison and
Hamilton Streets, fire broke out at 3:25 o’clock
on the afternoon of May 21, 1919. It was just an
ordinary small blaze, but in those days the
water pressure in Mobile’s southern section was
not very high. Soon the fire spread beyond
control of the Fire Department (which was later
accused of lack of organization and efficiency
in that particular emergency) and leaped from
structure to structure and block to block until
four hours later it had laid waste 40 city
blocks containing 200 houses.
After gaining their start in the
Cunningham
store building, the flames swept rapidly
southeastward. It soon became apparent that the
fire was beyond control; in a short time a house
at Conception and Canal Streets, two blocks
away, was on fire.
The fire paused at Franklin Street, between
Madison and Eslava, but burned fiercely south of
Madison. Houses on both sides of Franklin,
between Madison and Canal, were burned, and four
houses on Canal between Franklin and Hamilton.
It then jumped across the street to the
southeast corner of Canal and Franklin, and in
the meantime was also burning the square east of
Franklin, between Madison and Canal.
When the all-devouring flames reached the east
side of Claiborne, between Franklin and Madison,
they seemed to be checked momentarily, but
flying embers set fire to a dwelling east of
Claiborne, between Madison and Canal, and in
less than an hour they had swept across
Conception, between Madison and Canal, at such
speed that many people saved nothing. By 6
o’clock the fire had leaped across Conception to
St. Emanuel and had headed directly southeast,
taking in the dwellings and the Settlement Home
at Conception and Canal.
At this point in the demon’s march, a force
of several thousand volunteers was on the
fire-fighting line. Despite their heroic
efforts, the fire reached the block on Canal and
Royal Streets, when the Alabama Dry Dock &
Shipbuilding Co. sent a force numbering more
than 1,000 men to the scene, and they kept the
fire from their plant and the riverfront. At
6:30 o’clock it seemed as though the L. & N.
repair shops at Royal and Charleston would catch
fire, but the company’s employees strenuously
wet all structures with several streams of water
and saved them.
Then, with the setting sun, the wind died
down and the fire was finally halted when it
reached an open space at St. Emanuel and
Charleston Streets and had virtually burned
itself out.
As soon as it appeared that the fire was
under control, measures to relieve distress were
quickly organized. The fire demon had eaten away
one of the most thickly populated sections of
the city, leaving nothing but a forest of gaunt
chimneys. Hundreds of families had lost their
homes and everything in them, but relief
agencies speedily responded to their urgent
needs. Officials of the Red Cross arranged to
have Mobile Relief Hall thrown open and equipped
to house the homeless. Other organizations
promptly followed suit, including the Knights of
Columbus, City Hospital, other fraternal
organizations, as well as scores of private
homes. A Central Relief Committee, headed by
D. P. Bestor, Jr.,
chairman, was organized and raised a
considerable fund to assist the fire sufferers.
Dawn of the following day revealed an area of
several square miles gutted by the flames.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 people had been rendered
homeless. Insurance men estimated that fully
$500,000 in damage had been done—$300,000 to
residences, and $200,000 to furnishings and
personal effects therein.
Highlights of 75 years in Mobile, Mobile,
Ala.: First National Bank of Mobile, 1940, pages
84-85
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Mobile, Alabama
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