August 17, 1870: Fires in Duluth test new volunteer fire department 

On this day in Duluth in 1870, a fire on Minnesota Point was the first call to Duluth’s newly established volunteer fire department, which was little more than a bucket brigade. The fire inside J. C. Funston’s furniture store was discovered by a Mr. Berkelman, who also resided in the building. Berkelman was only able to save his tool chest, and severely burned his hand in the process. The building was a total loss, as was the structure next store, a recently opened grocery store operated by two men named Davis & Eaton. The fire spread to Thomas Smith’s drug store; the building was saved but much of the Smith’s stock was destroyed. The Minnesotian credited “energy, skill, and many hands” for saving that building and preventing the fire from spreading throughout the community. Besides the nascent fire department, James Olds, a principal in the Morralee, Olds & White lumber company, brought hoses attached to two garden engines which pumped water from St. Louis bay to extinguish the flames. The newspaper estimated the total loss at $4,200 (about $81,000 in today’s dollars) and noted that none of the businesses or buildings were insured. An hour after the fire was extinguished another blaze was reported at a building on Superior Street; this time the volunteers commandeered a chemical fire extinguisher from the Clark House Hotel to put the fire out.  According to Duluth Fire Department historian Jarry Keppers, these two fires inspired Duluth’s first fire ordinance.

Member of Duluth’s “Hose Company #1″—the city’s volunteer fire department—posing on the steps of the Clark House Hotel in 1872. (Image: University of Minnesota Duluth Kathryn A. Martin Library Archives and Special Collections)