The fires that built the department: 1872, 1881, 1886

1872–1886 · THE CONFLAGRATIONS AND WHAT THEY CHANGED

The night of 5 September 1872: The fire that remade Mishawaka broke out at 7:45 p.m. on 5 September 1872, in Peter De Kever's account in the city's own history — a night of hot, dry conditions and a strong wind, in a downtown of wood-frame buildings, hay, and open flames, served by inadequate firefighting equipment. The National Register nomination measures the result: the fire destroyed nearly 90 percent of the business district, including the town hall — in which the town's hand engine was stored, so that the fire consumed the means of fighting it. The one hand pump was of little use even with fire apparatus sent from Elkhart and South Bend to aid. What the fire changed is the two entries around this one: the water works of 1873–74 were built in its ashes, and the town's fire establishment was never again allowed to rest on a single stored engine.

The Dodge fire, 1881, at response size: In 1881 lightning struck the Dodge Manufacturing factory on its Union Street site — incorporated the year before, moved to the site that year — and the little factory burned, uninsured, and was rebuilt at once on a more substantial plan. The fire whole is Businesses' anchor, in its company entry; what belongs to the fire service's record is the response, and of the response no account survives in the record reached: the answering force was the two volunteer companies of the Rescue era, and neither company's paper for that night is in the record. The gap is named, not filled: the companies' records, if they survive, and the Mishawaka press of 1881 are the settling sources.

The second great fire, 1886: Fourteen years after 1872, fire took the downtown a second time: the nomination records a second massive fire in 1886, and this time the purchase followed directly — a steam fire engine, bought for $900, the town's first machine that pumped by steam rather than by men's arms, and a new hose house built on East Mishawaka Avenue near Sarah Street to keep it. The steam engine is the volunteer era's last great acquisition; the establishment that ran it — volunteers, a steamer, two hose houses — is the one the paid department of 1904 inherited and replaced.

The pattern, printed plainly: Mishawaka's fire history to 1904 is a sequence of purchases made after losses: the Rescue after the Tiger aged, the water works after 1872, the steamer after 1886.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (the city's posted history) — the fire of 5 September 1872, breaking out at 7:45 p.m., fed by hot, dry conditions and a strong wind.
2. National Park Service, National Register registration form, Mishawaka Fire Station No. 4, Section 8 — nearly 90 percent of the business district destroyed in 1872, the town hall and the stored engine with it; Elkhart and South Bend apparatus aiding; the second massive fire of 1886, the steam engine purchased for $900, and the new hose house on East Mishawaka Avenue near Sarah Street.
3. The Businesses fragment of this build — the 1881 Dodge lightning fire, uninsured, rebuilt at once (Howard's 1907 county history and Discover Indiana, as cited there), carried here at response size only.