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The Fire of 1895
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To uncover the first stories about the existence of a fire department in Lockport, one goes back to an event of great importance to the city's history - that being the fire of 1895. Records tell us of the tragedy caused by this blaze as large portions of the downtown area were destroyed. As is often the case in the history of man, cause and effect seem to logically direct man to take action. This concept could be applied to the fire as well, because one just knows that had there been no fire, the attempts to organize a fire department would have been delayed. It would be so easy here to rant and rave about everyone of the details involved with this fire, but this would detract from our intended purpose. Suffice to say, however, there are accounts and people that surface who are worthy of recognition and praise.
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When one looks at the City of Lockport late in the 19th century, settlement of a solid business and residential region had taken place. The west side was largely residential, with the commercial interest confined to the public landing and State Street. The town was divided by the I & M Canal which had less traffic and diminished financial value to the community. Nevertheless, Lockport flourished and its immediate future appeared bright, for work had commenced and construction begun on the new Illinois and Michigan Sanitary Canal. By one's impression drawn from the history of this era, Lockport's future was as solid as the limestone lining its canals and used in their buildings.
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Given this backdrop, one can appreciate the horror felt throughout the community when disaster struck on August 10, 1895. Past records show this summer to have been one of the driest and hottest in recent years. When tinner Frank Miller spilled hot coals on the roof of the Phoenix Newspaper Building on this day, it soon was turned into an uncontrolled burning inferno of flames engulfing one building right after another within a square block area of downtown Lockport. There was little one could do to locally combat this enormous blaze, for the only water system in town was owned and operated by Hiram Norton. Once it became apparent that this was no ordinary fire, Mr. Norton confined the water to saving his building. This move proved satisfactory to Mr. Norton and the salvation of his edifice, but limited any option the city could muster in thwarting the fire. Reports do confirm efforts made by the Mayor, Mayor McDonald, to enlist onlookers and city residents to do battle, but a few hydrants and hand extinguishers were no match for this blaze. Instead, the major effort to curtail the fire was the issuance of alarm to the Lemont, Joliet, and Chicago departments. Units responded either led by horse-drawn units or sent by rail. The horse-drawn Joliet department came first twenty-five minutes after the call was made, followed three hours later with an especially equipped train from Chicago consisting of a thousand feet of hose and engine paraphernalia.
Lemont was to send hose too, but the Alton Railroad refused to haul it. Matters intensified in the afternoon when Lockport Elementary School located across the street from the main activity caught on fire. Valiant efforts were extended by the Joliet firefighters to stall the spread of fire to this school structure, but they lost in vain due to a lack of hose and sufficient water supply. The final toll amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to the entire square block of Lockport bounded by Ninth and Tenth Streets and State and Hamilton Streets. Add to this the elementary school costs and the looting to the downtown area on the night of the fire by laborers on the new sanitary canal, and one can begin to see the magnitude of the devastation and loss of morale suffered by town residents. One anecdote to this account deserves mention Supposedly the Lockport Elementary School Board had approached the city officials prior to the fire and had requested them to install a hydrant on their property. The city's response to this request was denied. It remains one of the miraculous factors about this fire that there were no casualties associated with it.
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