The Great Fire of Nineteen Oh Seven
Near Old Orchard Beach, Maine
On an evening in August, nineteen oh seven, at the height of the summer season, fire broke out in Old Orchard Beach. It is said to have started in staff quarters attached to the four story Hotel Alberta, and in a town packed with wooden hotels and cottages standing shoulder to shoulder, it spread with terrifying speed. In a matter of hours much of the downtown was gone.
The flames consumed most of the large hotels, along with many smaller hotels and something like fifty cottages. The fire is said to have reached the pier before men tore up the wooden planking to cut the burning section away and save the rest. Thousands of people were driven from their lodgings, and many spent the night camped out on the open beach.
Relief soon arrived by train to help the refugees. Most of the great hotels lost that night were never rebuilt. The fire of nineteen oh seven marked the end of an era, and it is the reason so little of the grand Victorian resort survives to be seen today.
