Following the Great Fire becomes the Great Aftermath called the "Burnt District"

Final Photograph of what the city looked like after all flames were extinguished (Baltimore Afire, Williams). Left photograph looks down Charles Street and right photograph looks down Lombard Street.

Below are the actual statistics of the damage calculated that were published in the Balto American issued on February 7th of 1954:

If the image becomes hard to read here they are re-typed:

• 139.9 Acres burned.
• 98 blocks or squares destroyed.
• $125,000,000 value of property destroyed.
• $50,000,000 of that property insured.
• $32,000,000 of that property insurance paid.
• 10 national banks burned.
• 3 savings banks burned.
• 6 trust and deposit banks burned.
• 1 state bank burned.
• 4 railroad companies destroyed.
• 4 steamship companies destroyed.
• 9 newspaper companies destroyed.
• 9 hotels destroyed.
• So basically almost the entire downtown Baltimore was destroyed and **LOSS OF LIFE = 0.

**I must state that the zero number of deaths were very confusing to research due to some elements that I had to look into a little more. The Maryland Encyclopedia indicates that the Baltimore Sun did print a recently rediscovered issue stating that " A charred, colored man's remains were pulled from the Inner Harbor." This was also issued days after the fire. It is sad to say or think about this aspect, but the charred remains could have been due to a different event that had occurred with the body, for at the time racism was in full affect.

The Maryland Encyclopedia also explains that two National Guardsmen and two firefighters (one from New York and the other from Baltimore) died, due to the fire, but not directly from the blaze. The men had passed away due to pneumonia and tuberculosis, which was caused from the exposure to the fire.

I wanted to mention again, that I have previously stated in my introductory blog, that there was a magazine that was published a month after the fire occurred, which had some very detailed photos of the fire, and I was very excited to find an original copy of the magazine, courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society Library. The magazine is called the Book of the Royal Blue and was published through the B & O Railroad.

This is a photocopy of the cover of the magazine. You cannot see it in this photograph but once looked closely, in the upper right corner of the cover, you can see that the book was borrowed from the library from 1938 to 1940...... interesting.

Below are some of the detailed images within the magazine.

The image, shown above, is of the elevator shaft of the Continental Building. the Iron poles were forced to curl due to the 2500 degree heat that intensified on the "Hot Corner"

This image, shown above, is of Baltimore City as a whole. The shaded black part towards the bottom of the image is what was known as the "Burnt District". This is the only source where I could find a shaded area of what was ablaze in the city compared to the rest of the entire city. The other sources only showed the shaded area closely.

I also photocopied the back of the magazine, but in color, just to show my readers how intricate publishing was in 1904.

Now I must conclude my blog about the aftermath of the fire by explaining how the Mayor at the time, Robert M. McLane Jr., played a major part in how the Great Fire of 1904 spread throughout almost all of downtown Baltimore. Professor Peterson explains in A Howling Inferno: The Great Fire, that within an hour after the fire started, the chief fire fighter of Baltimore City was struck by a sparking electrical fire and was incapacitated for most of the blaze. On count of this occurrence, the Mayor of the city then had to direct all fire departments coming into Baltimore City.

McLane was thirty six at the time, which was recorded as the youngest mayor up to that point in time. Peterson referenced that spectators claimed McLane was a young, energetic mayor and acted more like a "macho" man during the fire than a leader, during his city's catastrophe. Onlookers claimed that the mayor simply stood in the streets cheering on the firefighters, while the firefighters claimed that the mayor had failed to set up a communications command center and that it was impossible to locate him. Also, as i stated in my introductory blog, McLane was the man who had approved to dynamite buildings that was believed the chief of the Baltimore Fire Department would have never chosen to do, and it is believed that the fire departments from other cities arrived late due to the lack of McLane agreeing to help from the other cities.

The Wikipedia explains that Mayor McLane was then quoted in the Baltimore News, after the fire, saying this:

"To suppose that the spirit of our people will not rise to the occasion is to suppose that our people are not genuine Americans. We shall make the fire of 1904 a land mark not a decline, but of progress.... As head of this municipality, I cannot help but feel gratified by the sympathy and the offers of practical assistance, which have been offered to us. To them I have in general terms replied, 'Baltimore will take care of its own, thank you'.