Flames ravished Vicksburg in 1846.
Vicksburg’s history is overwhelmed with tales of community-driven support after disaster. During its earliest days, the city was mostly isolated from the major populations of the United States. Inhabitants of this area came to the region with the understanding that they were in the dominion of a pioneer country, which meant that they relied more heavily on the local population than other cities of the time with well-developed infrastructures. One of the best examples of community-driven support lies in the early fire companies in Vicksburg. Fires could quickly escalate beyond resistance, especially here at Vicksburg. Winds flowing across the flat delta land concentrate into powerful gusts when met with the bluffs, fueling small fires and spreading them rapidly among the wooden structures that comprised much of the city’s earliest structures. This made even the smallest fires not just an isolated problem but one that could easily overtake the community, setting progress and development back years. On February 14, 1846, this nightmare became a reality for the citizens of Vicksburg.
The earliest conception of a fire department in Vicksburg consisted of nothing more than a bucket brigade and rainwater collected in cisterns. One such location that housed cisterns for the city’s use is Court Square, where four underground cisterns provided central access for the bucket brigades (these cisterns remain underneath the octagonal buildings on the lawn of the Old Court House Museum). Every able-bodied male citizen was a member of these bucket brigades, often being awoken in the middle of the night to extinguish a fire that erupted in our town. They would form two lines from the cisterns to the location of the fire, passing buckets of water down the lines and the empty buckets back to the cisterns to be refilled. Another means for preventing the spread of fires to adjacent structures was a large hook and rope that were used to pull a building down and away from another. Containing a fire and allowing it to run its course was often more effective than trying to extinguish it and save the building.
A major improvement was made to the system with the introduction of the Hand Fire Engine, a hand pumping apparatus that could shoot a stream of water through leather hoses intermittently with each stroke of the pump. This improvement led to the creation of the fire companies in Vicksburg, the first being the Constitution Fire Company in April of 1837. W. L. Trowbridge was its foreman, and the company was situated in a small building on the corner of Locust and Openwood Streets until 1870 when it was moved to Main and Openwood Streets.
Shortly following the Constitution Fire Company was Phoenix Fire Company No. 2, under the leadership of Charles Cox, on Walnut Street just two weeks later. Both stations were under the direction of Vicksburg’s first Fire Chief, R. S. Roome. Just a few years later two more stations were added to the department with Fulton No. 3 and Washington No. 3. While developments in technology and modernization of tactics made effective improvements to the city’s department, all was put to the test in February of 1846.
Just before dawn, citizens were riled with the ringing of the fire bell and shouts of fire. Quickly, volunteers rushed to their posts, but by the time they began their fight the fire had already showed signs of escalation. The fire began in an old wooden building on Jackson Street, but when the Fire Companies arrived it had already spread to two warehouses adjoining the structure. Wind gusts enabled the flames, spreading burning debris over a wide area of downtown. Once the fire had reached Washington Street, it was quickly enveloping every building from the Jackson Street block to Main Street, and then turned east towards Walnut Street. It was finally brought under control just after breaking further north, but the flames had already completely destroyed over 25 buildings leaving many homeless.
Despite the sorrow and hardship brought on the city, the community came together in support of each other with compassion and generosity. Funds and provisions were given to those in need, and housing was provided for anyone that needed it. From the ashes of devastation, the community working together was reborn like the fabled phoenix of mythology.