The Great Fire of 1906

The Great Fire of 1906. . The first alarm came in at 1:06 a.m. on June 14, 1906 to the Grand Avenue Fire Station in South McAlester. The station was 1.5 miles away and by the time the firemen reached the scene, several businesses had caught fire, power lines were down and citizens in their nightclothes were doing what they could to fight the flames., The fire was fought with bucket brigades from two rail tank cars of water. It was noted by reporters that Gen. R.B. Coleman was seen "yeoman's work" with the buckets., Everything was taken out of J.J. McAlester's home except for two stoves. The piano was found the next morning in the orchard. Nice carpets and rugs were jerked up from the floors and dampened and put on the roof of the house, which helped save it from being destroyed., Afterward, the people of the community gathered in the street and vowed to rebuild out of stone and brick. The wooden buildings had burned to the ground but J.J. McAlester's 1893 building had no damage due to its' stone construction., Eventually, the source was traced to Walker's Feed Store due to a faulty electrical line. Much of the loss was said to be uninsured, but insurance records show that during 1906 and 1907 a total of $325,000 was paid out (adjusted for inflation: $7,665,000 in 2013)., The Masonic Hall and contents had a loss of $2,500 of which $1,000 was insured., J.W. Tobolowsky, proprietor of the Golden Eagle store suffered the worst from the fire; his stock of $4,000 was entirely consumed and he had no insurance. Large crowds gathered to view the ruins the next morning., The only injury was to Fireman Joe Ritter, who tripped in the dark. One death was suspected until it was discovered to be the skeleton that hung in the Doctor's office.