Dbq Salem Witch Trials

From the beginnings of the United States there have been many natural and man-made disasters. Some disasters have affected the nation as a whole, while others affected communities in small areas throughout the states and territories. While large disasters are widely known and covered, the lesser disasters fall through the cracks of time and are soon forgotten by all who were not in its area of affect. In researching lesser known American disasters, I stumbled across one that caught my attention that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is most known for its dark pages in history, the witch trials, which took place in 1692. After the witch trials Salem was pretty quiet in the history pages, prospering as major fishing and maritime trade center. With prosperity came

growth, and by the early 20th century the city contained over 5,000 buildings and homes and was at a time one of the most import ports for trade and commerce in early American history.

Many of the homes and businesses were built during the colonial times so they were made mainly of wood, and during this time fire safety measures were not a priority which led to the disaster, "The Great Salem Fire" on June 25, 1914.
The fire began at the Korn Leather Factory at 57 Boston Street, which is located in the northern part of the city. Chemicals that were used to create varnish exploded starting the blaze. It is believe that the heat of the day built up in the storage room where the chemicals were kept that caused the explosions and started fires. Some of the factory buildings had a sprinkler system, but because of the wooded structures the buildings were made of the few that had the sprinkler systems were ineffective, allowing the fire to grow hotter. It was a hot windy day that day, and the wind caused the man-made fire to become exponentially worse. The strong wind fanned the flames south into the heart of the city and the fire jumped to nearby buildings and kept growing. During this time most building and homes did not follow any fire ordinances, so the roofs were made out of combustible material like plain wood shingles. Embers were blown from

the fires and deposited on these wooden shingle roofs that kept the destruction spreading. Some homes were dynamited by the fire department to try and contain the spreading fires .A quarter of the city totaling 253 acres was lost that contained 1,376 homes and businesses. During the blaze fire departments from 21 cities from the surrounding area came to aid the city. The fires ravaged the city for about 15 hours and some burning coal piles burned up to July 13. The Massachusetts National Guard was deployed to the area and setup security to keep people out of the damaged part of the city to curb looting. The soldiers were given orders to keep all civilians out of the ruins and that looters were to be shot on sight. The city’s population at this time was around 48,000 residents. The destruction caused by the fires made 18,000 of the city’s total residents homeless. With many businesses up in flames, 10,000 people also lost their jobs. Tent cities were erected around the city so that the displaced citizens would have shelter. The commissary department was in charge of the rations that were given to the refugees. To feed the displaced citizens cost around $2,200 a day in 1914 dollars. The total loss from the fires was estimated to be $15,000,000 and $11,744,000 of that total was covered by insurance. One amazing aspect of this fire is its death toll. For all of the destruction caused to the city and the thousands who lost their homes barely any lives were lost. I could not find any accounts of an exact total of deaths but there are some estimates. According to data collected