The First "Big One"
Sunday, January 13, 1918
Hamden Plains Methodist Church
Dixwell Avenue and Church Street
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| From 1898 Booklet |
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In late 1984, The Hamden Chronicle ran a story about some of Hamden's great fires. At the end of the article, Editor Steve McCarthy inserted a paragraph asking readers with photos, news articles or related memora- bilia about old Hamden fires to contact the training division at fire headquarters.
A few days later a letter was received from Lester Hintz, a lifelong parishoner at the Hamden Plains Methodist Church. Mr. Hintz's letter included a handwritten account (printed below) of Hamden's first notable fire of the 20th century, written many years earlier by an eyewitness whose identity is not given.
The photos on this page, courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society, were scanned from the 1920 dedication program for the new church, which still stands today at Dixwell Avenue and Church Street.
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| January 13, 1918 |
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On January 13, 1918 the church building caught fire. It started in the library from a defective chimney where the mortar had crumbled away.
In those days church services were from 10:30 to 12 noon and Sunday School from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. The fire started at about 1:30 p.m. The sexton, John Maute, lived on Beacon Street. He saw the smoke and rushed back to the church and rang the bell to give an alarm.
He was a veteran of the Civil War, and being true to the tradition of a soldier, rushed into the Sunday School room and rescued a silk American flag which was a gift from the Ladies Aid Society to the Sunday School. The flames soon got up into a blind attic underneath a tin roof. A strong southwest wind pushed the fire from the rear of the church across to the front of Dixwell Avenue.
Three volunteer fire companies from Hamden and one paid company from New Haven fought the fire and kept it from completely destroying the building. While the firemen were trying to get at the fire in the upper part of the church, people were taking out hymnals, library books, chairs and everything that was movable.
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The pulpit had a gaslight on it, and the gas pipe went through the pulpit so it could not be carried out. The wind that day was averaging between 19 and 22 miles per hour, with gusts up to 30. The temperature was 13 degrees above zero. These readings were all taken at the Weather Bureau in New Haven at the post office. Out here in Hamden the temperature is about 5 degrees lower than in New Haven and the wind velocity is higher.
Fortunately, there were no injuries to firemen, but some were overcome with smoke. Some of them had on ordinary overcoats which soon got wet and then froze. They were so stiff they had to be pulled off while the firemen struggled to get out. It was nearly dark when the firemen began to pick up their equipment and leave.
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After the fire, the Humphrey Volunteer Fire Association offered the use of its meeting room for church services, as did the Whitneyville Congregational Church.
There is no official record of just which three Hamden fire companies responded that day. Most likely, they were the Highwood, Humphrey and Whitneyville companies. Whitneyville would have responded with motorized apparatus. The engine company from New Haven was most likely Engine 6 out of Dixwell Avenue. New Haven still had some horsedrawn apparatus in 1918, but Engine 6 was motorized.
The Hamden Plains Methodist Church fire was probably the driving force behind the purchases of two 1918 Stewart chemical trucks for the Highwood and Mt. Carmel fire companies, and a 1919 Seagrave 750 GPM pumper, affectionately dubbed "Big Bertha," for Humphrey.
Posted 1/13/11
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| Aftermath |
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| Out of the ashes - Rebuilt in 1920 |
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