2:00 PM
Georgia Railway and Power Company employees cut electricity from trolley and street service lines.
1:50 PM
Fire consumes St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Auburn Avenue, and the Old Wheat Street Baptist Church at Auburn Avenue and Fort Street.
Mattie Culbreath describes trying to save her grandmother from the fire.
1:45 PM
Smoke begins rising from Old Wheat Street and Hilliard Street. Winds pick up and as many as six fires break out below Edgewood Avenue. Engine and Hose 3, 4, and 5 were called to battle fires at Auburn Avenue and Jackson Street. Hose 8 and 9 make their way to Old Wheat Street to battle a fire near Jackson Street.
1:30 PM
The East Point Fire Department arrives just as fire reaches Fort Street and Schoffield Street. Decatur’s Motor Engine arrives to battle a fire spreading toward Edgewood Avenue and Yonge Street.
1:15 PM
Fire breaks out at Bellwood Avenue and Oak Grove.
1:00 PM
Calls go out to Decatur, Marietta, East Point, and Kirkwood for support.
12:46 PM
Fire breaks out at the Skinner Storage Company warehouse just north of Decatur Street between Fort Street and Hilliard Street. Ladder 12, passing nearby, stops and finds a stack of burning mattresses on the porch of a storage building owned by Grady Hospital. Having run out of firefighting equipment, Ladder 12 calls Steam Fire Engine Co. 11 for support. By now, the fire had spread to several homes on Hilliard Street as well as the Skinner Brothers Transfer Company warehouse on Fort Street.
Fire alarm operators are inundated with reports of fire. One operator, out of paper and unable to leave his desk, begins recording fire calls on a piece of wood removed from his desk.
12:15 PM
A call came in reporting another fire at Woodward Avenue and King Street. By the time Engine and Hose Co. No. 10, Hose No. 4, and Ladder No. 1 arrive, the fire has spread to both sides of Woodward Avenue and is moving toward King Street and East Fair Street. Meanwhile, the trolley wires from the Woodward Avenue-Grant Park trolley line begin to snap and fall into the street, sparking, and setting fire hoses on fire. 700 feet of hose is lost.
12:05 PM
Another fire breaks out at York Avenue and Oglethorpe Avenue. Chief W.B. Cody calls for Hose 8, Engine 12, and Hook and Ladder No. 4. By the time they arrive, the Marshall Nelms house, Gordon Apartments, and Robert C. King house are on fire.
11:48 AM
Hose Company No. 9 arrived at the York Avenue fire. Chief W.B. Cody calls for backup. Engine 15 (from West Peachtree Street) and Engine 16 (from Marietta Street) make their way to the scene.
11:43 AM
Boys playing behind the Fred Walker house at 56 York Avenue start a small fire. The fire quickly spreads to the house. One of the only engines currently not in use was the horse-drawn Company No. 5 located over a mile away. Shortly after Company No. 5 arrived, Motor Hook and Ladder Company No. 2 came to help. By then, the fire had spread to 54 York Avenue and 52 York Avenue.
11:39 AM
Fire breaks out at the Candler Warehouse located between Murphy Avenue, West Glenn Street, Stewart Avenue, and Shelton Avenue. The warehouse was being used to store 500+/- bales of cotton. Engine and Hose Company No. 7, Motor Engine Company No. 14, Hook and Ladder Company No. 7, and Chemical Engine Company No. 1 are called to battle the fire.
Here’s a map you can use to track the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 as we post updates throughout the day.
