Read "The Burning of Chelsea" by Walter Merriam Pratt online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The fire started a little before eleven on Sunday morning, April 12, 1908. Its origin will probably never be positively known. The most plausible theory, however, is that the roof of a building of the Boston Blacking Company, which is located just off Summer Street, close to the Everett line, in the extreme western part of the city, caught fire from a burning pile of rags on the dump to the windward. At all events, the flames were first seen just before eleven o'clock licking up this inflammable building with its contents of oil, and sending a shower of sparks blown by a forty-mile gale towards the heart of the city, and an alarm was at once sent in.
Immediately upon his arrival Fire Chief Spencer ordered a second alarm sounded as a matter of precaution, owing to the high wind. The firemen did good work and soon had the initial blaze well in check, as is shown by the fact that the remaining buildings of this company close by were saved.