THE BALTIMORE FIRE The Baltimore fire of Sunday, February 7, 1904, and the Monday following swept over an area estimated to be one hundred and fifty acres, the heart of the business section. Over thirteen hundred buildings were destroyed and probably four thousand firms, corporations, or indi viduals were burned out. Many of these went into new locations at once ; some reduced their working force ; some ceased to do business, for the time at least. No residence section was burned, but a few families, chiefly Hebrew and Italian, were driven from their homes. A good many lodging-houses were swept away, including some that had long been unsanitary shelters of homeless and depraved persons. All this came suddenly toward the close of an unusually cold winter, when there had been an unusual amount of illness.
The fire began Sunday noon, and was not wholly under control until Monday afternoon. At noon Monday, one hundred or more leading citizens met at the mayor's office. Little that was definite could be said or done about rehabilitation. The talk turned to the question of distress and its relief. A member of the legislature promised that the state would give a large sum ; a mem ber of congress suggested that the national government be asked for $1,000,000. Other cities were pledg ing aid. A few cool heads, saying that no residence section had been burned, urged that there was time to ascertain first what the needs were, before deciding how 1 This account of the work of the Citizens' Relief Committee of Balti more is condensed but slightly from an article contributed by Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett to Charities of June 4, 1904. Dr. Brackett was not only pres ident of the Board of Supervisors of City Charities, and a manager of the Charity Organization Society, but was chairman of the Relief Committee.
432 to meet them and with what amounts. These cool heads were openly criticised by some as having cold hearts. But the meeting adjourned without action in this matter. The mayor was the key to the situation, and he, although he had been under a great strain for twenty-four hours, was calm and clear-headed, evidently disposed to agree with the cooler heads. As to the offers of aid for relief of distress which came from many sources without the city, the mayor did no more than courteously to acknowl edge them ; such sums as were sent he placed in his safe, to be used later as needed. He conferred at once, how ever, with several leaders in charity work, including the head of the city department of charities and correction, who were watching conditions. Meantime, some very inflammatory reports as to conditions of distress were being circulated, especially outside of Baltimore. Several of them came from well-meaning but injudicious religious workers. One of them was that homeless men and even casual laborers from the lodging-houses burned were unable to find shelter. For one night only, the Friendly
Inn, a large and well-regulated temporary home for home less men, used by the city for applicants to its offices, a house where food and shelter and a bath must be earned by work, had had a good many beds filled, but none had had to be turned away ; three nights after the fire, there were nearly one hundred vacant beds. Strict orders were issued by the marshal of police to the captains to arrest all persons begging on the streets as fire sufferers, and word was passed among the lodging-houses that per sons who had no business in town had better leave. The mayor was soon informed that for homeless men no special measures were required ; that the existing chari table agencies for dealing with homeless men could and should deal with all such persons.
As to residents, the mayor was soon informed that there was not then any such amount of unusual destitu tion as to call for unusual measures for immediate relief. The few families who had been burned out had already been cared for without delay and without publicity, by neighbors and friends, or by the regular well-organized charities of the city. While the leaders in charitable work were sure of this condition, no one ventured, of course, to prophesy what the extent of real distress caused by the fire would be, or how much money would be needed to meet it. The existing charities had been hard worked since autumn. While there was no immediate and great increase in pressure, all believed that there would be some unusual distress due to the fire which their regular workers and their usual income could hardly meet. The immediate question with their leaders was, should any ex traordinary measures be taken for relieving in their homes persons who might soon become in actual need because of the fire. The judgment was that there was not need of any new mechanism for the administration of relief then, but that a large and representative relief committee had better be appointed by the mayor, in order to receive funds for the unusual demand, to decide what agencies should be used for administering relief, and to give confi dence to the community that what needed to be done would be well done. Such a committee was appointed and organized February 13, the Saturday after the fire. The president of the Department of Charities and Cor rection was made its chairman, and a small executive committee was appointed to carry out all details. This consisted of two lawyers, two business men, and the chair man. They were all comparatively young men ; three of them were actively interested in the work of the Char ity Organization Society ; one was president of the visit ors to the jail.