Great Fires: 1906 Great Earthquake & Fire

GOTC Report of the Destroyed Steam Engines

A few days after the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire, when department members came back to Post and Kearny Streets to see if anything was salvageable off the destroyed engine, this is what they found.

CAN YOU TELL US THE MAKE OF THIS ENGINE?  WE DO NOT KNOW.

Three Engines Were Destroyed In The 1906 Fire. They are: 

1866 Amoskeag Steam Fire Engine, 1st size, No. 175, assigned to Relief Company No. 1
1872 Amoskeag Steam Fire Engine, 2d size, No. 390, assigned to Relief Company No. 3
1897 LaFrance Steam Fire Engine, 1st size, No. 374, assignment unknown

What we know:
There were three 1897 LaFrance, 1st-size, double, 900 GPM, Steam Engines in service during the conflagration.  In addition to LaFrance registration number No. 374, the other registration numbers were 373 and 388.  These three engines were assigned to Engine Company No. 10, 516 Bryant Street; No. 12, 101 Commercial Street and No.19, 1421 (1749) Market Street.  The firehouses of all three companies were destroyed during the fire.  The Municipal Report of 1907 only shows the registration numbers of the three engines lost, not the engine assignment by a registration number.  Nor does it have any record of which of these three companies lost their engine.  We are still researching to find this information.  Can you help?

RELIEF COMPANIES

We know:
In 1896, Chief Engineer Dennis Sullivan organized five relief engine companies.  These companies were mainly staffed by the members of the corporation yard and responded to all 5th alarms of fire.  Two of the three engines lost were from the relief companies.  It may have been that the crews of the relief engines were assigned to assist the regular companies and left their engine behind unattended.

HOOK & LADDER TRUCK DESTROYED

The department also lost a Ladder Truck, shop No. 17.  We do not know to which company ladder truck number 17 was assigned.  Do you? 

MISSING RECORDS -  A POSSIBLE ANSWER

One reason for the missing information is that all the journals in use were destroyed when 27 firehouses were destroyed in the flames.  All the destroyed firehouses were inside the fire lines that covered the downtown and mercantile sections of the city.  How many days, weeks or even months did it take for the companies to receive new journals so that they could start their daily entries again?

Please contact us if you have any information that you think might be helpful.  Thank you in advance.

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