blogpop: July 2009 Archives

July 2009

PHOTO COURTESY DOUG WHEELER

by Jerry A. McCoy

The largest fire in the history of Silver Spring took place 60 years ago this month when the Silver Spring Building and Supply Co. lumber yard went up in flames.  The fire was reported around 5:30 p.m. on July 4, 1949, occurring in the block bounded by Georgia Avenue, Ripley Street, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks (today's Metro/CSX tracks) and Bonifant Street.

Over 300 firemen responded to the blaze from units in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties as well as Washington, DC.  In addition to the lumber yard, the fire consumed the company's woodworking mill and five other service buildings.  Fire Chief John A. Gilson officially estimated the damage at $400,000 ($3.5 million in 2009 dollars) and that the cause was arson.  Undamaged was the company's 1922 Colonial Revival style brick headquarter building, located at 8222-26 Georgia Avenue until this past spring when it was gutted by its owner.

The heat from the flames was so intense that spectators a block away had to shield their faces.  Over 50 firemen were felled by the smoke and heat.  Waitresses from restaurants located in the vicinity of the fire brought large pitchers and glasses to serve ice water to the parched firemen.

Policemen labored to keep (even then) heavily-traveled Georgia Avenue clear for responding emergency vehicles.   Their efforts were compounded when thousands of people, drawn by the smoke and flames, poured into the area to observe the drama.

Many of those onlookers can be seen in the accompanying remarkable aerial photograph of the fire that recently surfaced.  Visible is Georgia Avenue with Ripley Street intersecting near the lower left corner.  Clouds of billowing smoke are drifting north from the lumber yard over Georgia Avenue.  A large portion of the lumber yard is today occupied by the Bonifant half of the Bonifant-Dixon parking garages.

Only a handful of photographs of the fire have surfaced over the years.  Certainly hundreds must have been taken and still sit in scrapbooks.  If you have any of these photos or know of someone who does, please share them with the Silver Spring Historical Society.  Contact Jerry A. McCoy at (301) 537-1253, email sshistory@yahoo.com, or write PO Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160.  Visit the Silver Spring Historical Society web site www.sshistory.org.