The Great Baltimore Fire

Early on the bitter cold morning of Sunday, February 7, 1904, a passerby on the nearly deserted streets of Baltimore’s business district noticed smoke coming from the fourth floor windows of the John E. Hurst & Co. building. Within hours steady, frigid winds had created a blaze that overwhelmed Baltimore’s firefighters and threatened the entire city. Although few died as a result of the flames, the heart of the city, its waterfront and business district — lay in ashes. The story of Baltimore’s trial by fire and ultimate resurgence is now freshly told for the first time in fifty years by Johns Hopkins scholar Peter B. Petersen.