Photo: Carl Stevens (WBZ)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke and around two dozen Boston Fire Department cadets attended an exhibit dedicated to the Great Boston Fire of 1872 at the Boston Athenaeum on Wednesday.
The exhibit "Revisiting the Ruins: The Great Boston Fire of 1872" features pictures and artifacts from the city's largest fire that destroyed 776 buildings across 65 acres of land on November 9 & 10, 1872.
"I think the library did a great job of bringing it back to life with all the photography and the drawings and the pictures," Commissioner Burke told WBZ NewsRadio. "I think it’s important to keep those memories alive and what happened and how the city was built and how it recouped from such a tragedy."
Burke said the cadets learned an important history lesson about the fire that raged throughout much of the financial district and claimed the lives of at least 30 people, including 12 firefighters.
"The fire department is proud to have played a role in extinguishing the fire, and the fire profession, to have firefighters from all over New England come to help fight this fire, it’s amazing," Burke said.
One of the oldest independent libraries in the country, the Boston Athenaeum was spared from the fire by only two blocks.
The exhibit runs until July 29.
WBZ's Carl Stevens (@CarlWBZ) reports.
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