FIRE: It was this time of year — only 115 years ago — that The Era reported on a destructive fire that crossed town and county lines.
“The warm spring winds of the past week had dried out the dead leaves and grass and conditions were extremely favorable for the coming of the consuming element,” the Friday, May 1, 1903, Era reported.
“Yesterday morning an accelerated breeze soon developed into a steady and forceful gale. The smoke that hung in the valleys became denser. And as the day wore on it seemed to fill the whole sky, obscuring the sun until the solar orb became a wine-red globe in a yellowish, hazy firmament.
“Lights were necessary in Bradford buildings in the afternoon and each flaming jet seemed strangely white in the atmospheric conditions that had developed. There was a peculiar depression produced by the smoky darkness of the day which affected everybody.”
The fire was reported to have started in two spots.
One started in the Nansen/Glen Hazel/McCray area in Elk and Forest counties and moved into Kushequa, Hutchins and Mount Jewett.
“The second fire covered a section of the county extending from Marshburg eastward to Big Shanty, Dents, Bingham, Cyclone, Simpson, Watsonville, Ormsby, Davis, Van Vleck and intermediate sections,” The Era reported.
The Saturday, May 2, 1903, edition recounted the damage as had been assessed by that point.
“The latest and most authentic information obtainable from various parts of the Bradford oil field indicate that a grand total of 557 derricks, with attendant boilerhouses, tankage, etc., were destroyed by the forest fires which ravaged the districts on Thursday.
“The losers were as follows: South Penn Oil Co., 180 rigs; Associated Producers Co., 100; R. J. Straight, 62; McKeown estate, 107; Bartley & Co. 12; A.C. Hawkins, 14; Mallory & Co., 2; Clough & Davis, 16; Newton Hunter, 40; G. Fessenden, 2; George Kabor, 2; W. Anderson, 12; C.P. Byron, 8.
The loss to the lumbermen and chemical companies was not as large as at first supposed, but it will overreach the $100,000 mark throughout the county. In many instances the chemical wood was partly covered by insurance.
It was predicted that it would be months before the destroyed derricks would be replaced.
“It is now estimated that the losses sustained in the county as a result of Thursday’s fire will aggregate $600,000,” The Era stated.
