Hampton Beach, New Hampshire Fire

September 23, 1915

FIRE SWEEPS COAST RESORT.

$200,000 Blaze at Hampton Beach, N. H., Destroys 45 Buildings

Hampton Beach, N. H. Sept 23 --- A fire starting in a box of rubbish tonight destroyed 45 buildings and caused a loss estimated at $250,000 in the most crowded part of this summer resort before the flames were checked by dynamite. Five hotels, two theaters, business blocks, and scores of cottages were leveled over a compactly built area of two acres.

The hotels destroyed were the Ashworth House, the most pretentious on the beach; Janvrin, Grand View, Lawrence, and the DeLancey. The regular season had closed and there were only about 200 cottagers at the beach.

Washington Post, Washington, DC 24 Sept 1915

HAMPTON BEACH SWEPT BY FIRE

Second Visitation of Flames In Two Years; Many Fitchburgers Yearly Go There

Hampton Beach, N. H., Sept. 24 ---A blaze starting in a box of rubbish early last night quickly swept through the most thickly settled part of this summer resort and destroyed more than 50 buildings before it was checked by dynamite. The loss is estimated at about $200.000.

Starting in the rear of the cottage of James P. Garland of Manchester, on B street, the flames were driven northward by a strong wind for a quarter of a mile to Highland street and burned back as far as Marsh avenue. Five hotels, 10 stores, the Episcopal chapel known as St. Peter’s by the Sea, and dozens of cottages were leveled in the heart of the business section. The wind drove the conflagration away from the Casino, where the social activities of the resort center.

The water supply held for only an hour. As the regular season at the beach had closed there were only a few cottagers to join the volunteer fire department and help was called from Portsmouth, Exeter, Hampton, Amesbury, Mass., and Salisbury.

The principal buildings lost were the Ashworth, Janvrin, Grand View, Fair View and De Lancy hotels; the Olympia and Strand theaters. the Ferncroft Garden dance hall; J. C. Ring block and the Jenkins block.

The heaviest individual losers were J. C. Ring, chief of the fire department and owner of a block of stores and several cottages which were burned, and George Ashworth, proprietor of the Ashworth house. This was the most pretentious on the beach and was built at a cost of about [illegible] to replace the structure burned two years ago. Mr. Ashworth also lost his bungalow where he made his home.

The blaze was discovered by Mrs. M. C. Morse in the rear of the Garland cottage. Chief Ring expressed the belief that boys playing with matches in a dry goods box filled with kindling wood and excelsior started the fire. When Mrs. Morse saw the flames she ran over and tried to put them out, but the fire quickly leaped up the side of the Garland cottage and fanned by a high southerly wind, drove sparks onto the Morse cottage. Mrs. Morse was forced to devote her energy to saving her own property and succeeded, although all the houses in the neighborhood were burned flat.

In less than half an hour the flames were beyond control of the few fire fighters available. Showers of sparks started scores of roof fires far ahead of the main conflagration and it was not until help from surrounding places arrived with dynamite that any impression was made on the wall of fire.

A strong effort was made to save the Ashworth house, but the firemen were forced to give it up and retreat beyond Nudd’s avenue. Fifteen houses were dynamited in this vicinity, but it is considered doubtful whether this sacrifice would have been of any use if the wind had not shifted to the west and blown the flames out to sea. The main line of the fire reached Highland street. Six or seven cottages beyond this were also damaged but were saved by their owners with buckets and wet blankets.

Some of the guests who still lingered at the hotels reported that they had lost some of their jewelry, and all their clothes except what they had on. Among those who were burned out were a few families who lived here all the year. For the benefit of those who had no roof over their heads Frank Callahan gave the use of the Atlantic house, of which he is the proprietor.

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, MA 24 Sept 1915

FIRE WAS ACCIDENTAL

Boys Playing With Matches Started the Blaze at Hampton Beach

Hampton Beach, N. H., Sept 25---Not all disheartened by the disastrous fire which swept over acres of land, destroying six of the largest hotels, along with two theatres, a church, ten stores and nearly forty cottages, the property owners of Hampton Beach are busy making plans to clear away the debris and start work at once rebuilding.

Investigation into the cause of the fire has made certain that the fire was not of incendiary origin, as has been reported.

Fire Chief Ring said that the fire started from a pile of rubbish under the piazza of the Darling cottage on B street as a result of boys playing with matches.

He said that he is convinced that the boys were in no way malicious and that the lighting of the rubbish was accidental.

A survey of the burned district by the selecten [sic] reduced somewhat the first estimate of the fire loss, but a conservative estimate is $175,000 to $200,000.

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, MA 25 Sept 1915

Articles transcribed by Helen Coughlin.  Thank you, Helen!

Injured: George Mores, Wal Godfrey

Lost property:  C. I. Bickum, Miss Georgiana Mills, John H. Hamilton, Robert C. Ring, A. C. Currier, Charles L. Higgins, Frank James,  Edward Gilman, William Burlingame, Fred L. Townsend, John A. Janvrin, L.C. Ring, M. C. Morse, Douglas Hunter, Samuel Suesman, Jules Benoit, Mrs. C. W. Newcomb, Mrs. D.A. Munsey

Hampton Beach Fire of 1915, The Hamptons Union Newspaper, September 30, 1915, from the Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, New Hampshire

Great Fires Of 1915 and 1923, "Our Town" By James W. Tucker, Thursday, January 31, 1952, from the Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, New Hampshire Photos of the Hampton Beach fire

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