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During my childhood days Denton and West Denton had their share of fires that destroyed property but to my knowledge no lives. Among fires that I remember, other than the two big ones that are the subject of this chapter, were a commercial garage, a car dealer's showroom and garage, one house in West Denton, and several houses in Denton.
The two fires that affected my life the most were (1) the one that burned the mill previously owned by my dad, two stores, and two houses all in one afternoon, and (2) the one about ten years later that burned my dad's store.
By all logical reasoning, our home, barn, and our store should have been destroyed along with the mill, the two houses, and the two stores. But miraculously, they were saved although they were somewhat damaged. The sketch that follows shows how close together these buildings were and will help the reader see that it was a miracle that our buildings were saved, especially since they were no more than 25 feet from the ones that burned to the ground.
This first fire, the big one, took place one afternoon in the year 1918. I was only four, but the memory of this fire lingered with me long after it happened. Many times after 1918 I was to hear regrets expressed over the fact that the steamboat JOPPA had just departed from the wharf at West Denton and was observed going out of sight around a bend in the river just as the fire broke out at the mill.
Regrets were expressed because the JOPPA had fire-fighting equipment aboard that could have easily doused the fire at the mill before it got out of hand. There no way of communicating with the JOPPA and no available boat faster, to send to catch her. Also, I was to hear my dad say many times, as the accident of the fire was told and retold, that when he owned the mill he always kept buckets of water in the loft close to the equipment that might get overheated and cause a fire (which is what actually did happen). These buckets were found to be empty when the fire did break out, and by the time water was brought to the scene the fire was out of control.
Two conditions caused the fire to spread rapidly to other buildings. One was the lack of fire-fighting equipment, and the other was the fact that the roofs of all buildings nearby were covered with wooden shingles which ignited quickly when sparks and coals of fire landed on them. During the early part of the century, most cities had some kind of reasonably adequate fire-fighting equipment, but small towns had none or at best very primitive equipment. I don't think that any was available in Denton on the day of this big fire.
Fortunately, the river was only a few feet away. Men, boys, women, and girls from the whole community gathered at the scene to move furniture and help fight the fire and to try to keep it from spreading to other buildings. They brought buckets, kettles, ropes, ladders, burlap sacks, and everything possible to fight the blaze.
I was too young to be aware fully of the procedures used and, in addition, some of the younger children, including me, were taken to another home far enough away from the scene to be safe and left in the care of the lady there. From the stories that I heard later, however, I do remember that the firefighters, after determining that the mill was too far gone, concentrated on the other buildings closest to the mill.
How much effort was concentrated on the stores is unknown, since they were much larger than the dwellings, and I doubt if the firefighters' methods were at all effective. I do remember stories about the bucket brigades, ladders, and burlap sacks used on our house, barn, and store, all three of which were closer than any other buildings to the heart of the fire. By putting the ladders on the sides of these buildings away from and shielded from the fire, men climbed them and spread wet burlap sacks over the roofs. Some stayed up on the roofs. Brigades of men and women formed lines and passed buckets of water from the river to the ladders and up to the roof. There the men on the roof continuously dashed water on the burlap sacks, keeping them wet and providing excess water to run down over the sides of the buildings nearest to the fire.
In the meantime, furniture and valuables were moved out of the nearby dwellings andfar down the street away from the fire. Other groups of men were posted at the buildings farther away from the fire to watch for sparks and chunks of burning wood that constantly were landing on the roofs of surrounding buildings. It was necessary to dash water on these burning coals to prevent them from setting another building on fire.
There was a house between ours and Pastorfield's store with almost no space between it and the store. Actually, there were no more than twenty feet between this house and ours. The house next to the store burned along with the store. Our house suffered roof damage, broken windows, severe paint blistering, and some weatherboard damage. Another house, some distance away from the mill, back somewhat from the Hillsboro-Denton road, and northwest of Knotts' store also burned. Logically, it should not have burned since it was farther away from the intensity of the fire than several other buildings that were saved, but the wind was carrying sparks and burning chunks in its direction. These got out of hand before they were noticed and proved fatal to the building.
In the meantime, the lady keeping us little kids did her best to console us and to keep our attention away from the fire We were close enough tosee the flames and smoke but were unable to see the details of the firefighting. I was very concerned about my cat; afraid that it was "getting burned up." I was too young, I guess, to be really concerned about my mother, dad, brother, and sister who were all involved in trying to save our household goods, home, barn, and store. I'm sure I didn't understand all that was involved his records from the store.
The fire burned itself out sometime that night. I do not know when we were able to get our household goods back in place and return to our home. I do remember that my cat was gone when we moved back in; now I was sure that it "got burned up" and my family tried to assure me that it had only been frightened, had gone somewhere far away from the fire and would return soon. As it turned out, it did return after several weeks, but in the meantime I was sure it had "burned up."
My dad's store had some damage to the roof, the front windows broken from the heat, and the sides badly scorched. The mill, two houses, and the two stores were completely destroyed. A pile of coal between the mill and the Pastorfield store smouldered and burned for days afterward. The stores were both rebuilt, a garage was later built on the mill site, but the two houses were never rebuilt.
I am sure that there were scores of dead-tired people by the time that fire was brought under control and people could return to their homes. As close as our home, barn, and store were to the center of the fire it would be miraculous if modern fire-fighting equipment could save them even today. I do not possibly see how the people involved stood the intense heat and the strain of many hours of very, very hard work. It was definitely a wonderful display of dedicated friendship and community spirit.
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