A Firestorm in Dorchester (episode 353)

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Jake:
[0:03] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.

Bellflower Firestorm Begins

Jake:
[0:13] This is episode 353, A Firestorm in Dorchester. Hi, I’m Jake. In this episode, we’re going to talk about a fire that broke out on a back porch in Dorchester 62 years ago this week. The Bellflower Street fire grew so fast and burned so intensely that it created its own weather, creating a literal firestorm and leaving the fire department struggling to contain it. Columns of smoke and flame licked the sky while every available firefighter from Boston and over two dozen suburban towns raced to the scene to make a desperate stand. When the smoke cleared, 35 buildings had burned, and 300 people were homeless.

Jake:
[1:01] But before we talk about the Bellflower Street firestorm, I just want to pause and say thank you to Andrew F., our latest Patreon sponsor, and to all the listeners to support Hub History financially. One of the best things about podcasts is that they’re almost all free to listen to. I know I have a list of about 20 shows that I never miss an episode of, and you probably do too. Unfortunately, while podcasts are free to listen to, they’re not free to create. Sponsors like Andrew sign up to give $2, $5, or even $20 or more each month to offset the cost of making Hub History. Costs like web hosting and security, podcast media hosting, automated transcription, and audio mastering. When unexpected expenses pop up, well, that’s when I’m grateful for the listeners who make one-time contributions on PayPal to also help support the show. Whether you decide to give once or on an ongoing basis, we appreciate your support. To everyone who’s already supporting the show, thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory or visit hubhistory.com and click on the support us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Perfect Spring Day

Jake:
[2:29] May 22nd, 1964 was about as close to perfect as spring days get in Boston. It was 79 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky overhead. 79 degrees Fahrenheit is about as warm as I would ever like it to get, but on this particular spring day there was no humidity at all and there was a steady breeze out of the southwest that made it pleasant to be outside. It was trash day in Dorchester and garbage crews were slowly making their rounds. Emptying the trash cans that had been pulled out next to the curb all over the neighborhood.

Jake:
[3:04] Firefighters from Ladder 20 under Lieutenant James Kennedy decided that this beautiful day was a perfect time to do a field inspection of their district in Dorchester, so they took one of their trucks and cruised around the streets, checking on hydrants and looking for fire hazards. At just after 1.30 p.m., a trash truck turned onto Bellflower Street in a Dorchester neighborhood that’s just south of the South Bay Plaza today. It’s just off the Southeast Expressway and roughly bounded by Boston Street, Dorchester Avenue, and Columbia Road. Bellflower is near the northern tip of this triangle, made up mostly of classic Boston triple-deckers that in 1964 were clad in shingles, clabberds, and faux-brick siding. One of them was 26 Bellflower, a flat-roofed triple-decker with asphalt siding.

Jake:
[3:59] Around the neighborhood, kids were at school despite the beautiful spring day, and most adults were at work. But anybody who could find an excuse to be outside was basking in the sunshine. What nobody yet realized was that the same conditions that made it such a great day to be outside were also creating a tender box in Dorchester. For days, temperatures had been in the mid-60s before they spiked up to the high 70s on Friday the 22nd. Winds had stayed pretty steady at about 15 miles per hour, with gusts to 30 miles an hour. A report prepared by the Boston Fire Department and published about two months later notes, The strong wind, prevailing even at its lowest, combined with the 8 to 10 degree increase in temperature, had caused a reduction in the humidity, which no doubt contributed to the further drying out of materials exposed to this weather combination. This drying out process of building materials had been taking place for a lengthy period of time preceding the fire, for no rain had fallen since April 26, 1964.

Cigarette Ignites the Porch

Jake:
[5:11] Sometime in the early afternoon of May 22nd, after almost a month with no rain, that steady breeze out of the southwest picked up a cigarette butt that somebody in the neighborhood had dropped without making sure it was fully out. The wind was blowing directly toward the back porch of 26 Bellflower, where it deposited that glowing cigarette butt in the folds of an overstuffed chair. The wind continued to blow on the smoking ember, with the official report on the fire noting that, It was fanned into sufficient intensity to ignite the material of the chair, which progressively accelerated by this same wind force, began to burn freely. The overstuffed chair had been stored on the left side of the rear porch adjacent to the exterior wall. The exterior wall of No. 26 Bellflower Street was sided with asphalt shingle, and influenced by the wind direction, flames from the burning chair drove up under the vertically secured asphalt shingles, igniting these quickly. With the inherent flame propagation characteristics of asphalt shingles under heat conditions, with the high-velocity wind encouraging combustion, with the prolonged period of dryness which had gripped the area for several weeks prior to May 22nd, with the warm, dry, pleasant temperatures, the material, the igniter, everything that was needed to establish a fire was present.

Jake:
[6:37] While the wind was fanning growing flames on the unseen back deck, neighbors chatted idly on a front porch across the street. By the time anybody noticed it, the fire was already burning out of control. Finally, one of the group of women who were gathered on the front porch glanced across Bellflower at number 26 and exclaimed, Look, Mrs. Walsh’s house is on fire. Hearing this, a woman identified in the reports as Mrs. Salvatore Sabella ran back across the street to her own apartment at 24 Bellflower, next door to the fire. At 1.38 p.m., she called the Boston Fire Department. And the few seconds it took her to connect to an operator and describe where the fire was, it grew so quickly that she closed her call with, I gotta get out of here.

First Calls and Rescue

Jake:
[7:30] Another caller moments later told the fire department operator that there were now two houses on fire on Bellflower Street. Seeing the flames, residents of the first and third floor units at number 26 went into their apartments, perhaps to get children and pets out, or to grab the family photos, or maybe just to see how much danger their homes were in. From outside on the street, the garbage crews who were making their way down Bellflower could see the ferocity with which the flames were spreading through the drywood framing and the flammable asphalt siding. Without a second thought, they rushed into the burning building and started evacuating the residents. A Boston Globe retrospective published on the 50th anniversary of the fire notes, Garbage collectors picking up trash on the street saw how quickly the fire was moving and went into the three-decker to help residents escape. Dropping one tenant from a second floor porch and into the arms of their colleagues below. Pat Morris, who said she moved from Bellflower Street three months before the fire, remembered a baby being tossed to safety. There were six children in the family, said the 82-year-old Morris. They all got out, but they had to throw the baby down.

Firefighters Take Command

Jake:
[8:49] Engine Company 21 of the Boston Fire Department was the closest firehouse to Bellflower Street, only about a half mile down Boston Street and Columbia Road. However, because they were already out cruising the neighborhood in the sunshine, I mean, performing an on-the-ground inspection of neighborhood fire dangers, Ladder 20 under Lieutenant Kennedy was the first unit from the Boston Fire Department to arrive on the scene. So, Kennedy took initial command. As his truck raced up the street, Lieutenant Kennedy could see that 24 and 26 Bellflower Street were both entirely engulfed in flames, and the fire looked like it would spread at any moment. Instead of driving the truck right up to the front door of the burning houses, he radioed in a second alarm and ordered the truck to stop at the corner of Boston Street, about 75 feet from the houses that were burning. This put the truck roughly downwind of the fire, and here they would make their stand to keep the fire from spreading any further.

Jake:
[9:50] While additional trucks took up a position on the corner of Bellflower and Dodd Ave, some of the firefighters from Engine 21 started spraying water directly onto the two burning houses, while the crew from Ladder 20 ran hand lines down the narrow driveway between 26 and 28 Bellflower to try to spray down the burning decks from the rear. They found a woman lying on the sidewalk between number 26 and 28, probably the second-floor tenant who’d been lowered unceremoniously off the porch roof, and they quickly carried her to safety. The firefighters were soon forced to follow, as the flames and heat were too intense in the backyards, threatening to cut them off. Fire crews also had to abandon any hope of searching the burning buildings for more victims, instead concentrating their efforts on trying to keep the fire from spreading.

Alarming the Whole City

Jake:
[10:40] At about this time, District 6 Fire Chief John R. Green arrived on the scene and immediately called in a third alarm.

Jake:
[10:50] Amazingly, only four minutes had passed since a neighbor picked up the phone and first reported the fire. After calling the third alarm, Green made his way into the danger zone in the rear of the Bellflower Street homes to try to assess the situation. The official BFD report on the fire records, He noted that it was extending by radiation southwesterly to the rear of the buildings on Dorset Street, southeasterly and northwesterly to the buildings paralleling the original fire building, and racing with the wind in a general northeasterly direction. Faced with the awesome realization that the fire was radiating in every direction, much as a circular ripple caused by disturbing the placid surface of a body of water, he immediately proceeded to Ladder Company 7, the nearest unit to him, and utilizing its radio, ordered a fourth alarm.

Jake:
[11:43] That fourth alarm was ordered at 1.44, six minutes after the fire was initially called in. By the time he made that call, Green realized that he couldn’t retrace his steps back to his truck because the fire had jumped to the north side of Bellflower Street and was burning toward Howell Street. Lieutenant Kennedy saw the same thing, as well as fire spreading south toward Dorset Street. His own report on the fire notes, I ordered a fifth alarm by radio and directed all companies coming into the area to operate big lines in an effort to surround the fire area. On being informed that a number of buildings on Dorset Street were involved in fire, I ordered five additional engine companies to be sent to the fire and operate from that area. When fire threatened to extend to buildings on Howell Street and continued to involve additional buildings on Bellflower Street, a request for all available help. was ordered by radio.

Jake:
[12:42] The fifth alarm was struck at 1.46, eight minutes after the initial call. At the time, five alarms were the most alarms that could be sounded for a fire in Boston. The first firefighters to arrive at the scene were doing their best to set up a perimeter that could contain a firestorm that was growing by the second and would soon engulf two full acres with dozens of homes burning. After the fifth alarm, calls one out to send every available Boston firefighter to the scene and to invoke the mutual aid agreements among most towns in eastern Massachusetts to bring in help from the suburbs.

Jake:
[13:24] The District 6 report by Chief John R. Green lists trucks from 39 Boston fire companies, as well as trucks from Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Holbrook, Lynn, Medford, Needham, Quincy, Revere, Watertown, Waltham, Wellesley, Winthrop, Woburn, Weymouth, and Winchester. In all, at least 27 local fire departments responded, after every available unit from the Boston Fire Department was already on the scene. Along with municipal fire departments, the Charlestown Navy Yard and the Naval Air Station in Weymouth sent fire crews to Bellflower Street, too.

Firestorm Spreads Fast

Jake:
[14:05] By 1.56, 18 minutes after the initial call, the fire was spreading in all directions. Its intense heat was generating massive updrafts, causing cool air to rush into the base of the fire and creating its own destructive weather pattern. In this moment, a literal firestorm swept through Dorchester, as outlined in the BFD After Action Report. The fire at this moment had extended from its origin at the rear of number 26, Bellflower, to the southeast, involving numbers 24, 22, 20, and 18, and to the northwest, numbers 28 and 30, Bellflower.

Jake:
[14:48] Radiated heat from the sea of fire now existing in this area had extended the fire to the windward side, southwest, and it now involved numbers 41, 37, 33-31, 29, and 25 Dorset Street. The wind from the southwest was gusting to high velocity, which increased the rate of combustion, evolving extremely high temperatures, and driving the fire to the leeward side on the northeast. The heat wave being generated by the fire at its source was being transmitted by the high wind across Bellflower Street and was involving the fronts of numbers 29, 27, 25, and 23 Bellflower Street, for these buildings were directly exposed by the volume of fire. The driving wind was whipping the flames from the burning fronts of the structures on the odd-numbered side of Bellflower through the alleys between the buildings, creating a forge-like driven vortex of fire which viciously twisted upward, consuming all material components it contacted, and generating extremely high temperatures, which appeared to cause the substances being consumed to disintegrate, with the molten residuals being carried upward and leeward to communicate sparks and firebrands throughout the neighborhood on that side of the fire.

Jake:
[16:07] And to complement that, Lieutenant Kennedy’s Division I report says, I directed the operations of the various companies from the Boston Street side of the fire on Bellflower, Howell, and Dorset Streets until the arrival of additional help at the fire. Acting Chief of Department Cloherty ordered additional engine and ladder companies to the fire, and also to have the area patrolled for possible fires starting from flying brands and sparks. Engine companies from the outside cities and towns were deployed throughout the fire area to assist in any place where needed, and latter companies from outside cities and towns were used in operations to contain the fire.

Battle Plan for Howell Street

Jake:
[16:47] While Boston and suburban firefighters put out roof fires and evacuated downwind residents, the first Boston units to arrive had drawn a thin defensive perimeter around all sides of the raging fire. Now it was time to take a more deliberative approach, applying the lessons of modern fire science to the largest firestorm anybody had seen in Boston in almost a century, since the 1872 Great Fire. By this time, Acting Chief of Department Cloherty had replaced Lieutenant Kennedy as the ranking firefighter on the scene. The main Boston Fire Department report on this fire outlines the lessons of modern firefighting they attempted to put into practice on Bellflower Street. And I apologize in advance, because this is a bit of a long quote.

Jake:
[17:35] The situation called for the channeling of the fire by compressing its edges on the northeast and on the southeast to reduce the length of the fire front against which the forces on these sides, Howell and Dorchester, would have to mass and hold. For too lengthy a fire front would reduce the depth of these forces and dilute what must be a concentrated defense. For experience had taught that any attempt to isolate the main fire by the application of water to the exposures only was doomed to failure, for the heat given off by the main fire was far greater than the cooling effect of the streams on exposed buildings.

Jake:
[18:14] The situation called for intervention by a battery of heavy stream appliances along Dorset Street on the southwesterly side to overcome radiant heat, which had already extended the fire from the rear of No. 26 Bellflower Street to the rear of Dorset Street against the wind, and was threatening to jump across Dorset Street, for experience had taught that the fire would spread upwind almost as dangerously as downwind. The situation called for the application of water by many heavy stream appliances to cool down the exposed surfaces at the point of severest exposure, combined with the application of water from similar appliances to cool down the fire itself at the point of extension, For experience, it taught that high temperatures evolved from a fire of this size prevented firefighters from remaining in effective operating positions between the main fire and the exposed buildings.

Jake:
[19:09] The situation called for a battery of handlines and heavy stream appliances set up near open areas so that the main fire would not spread. For experience indicated that every advantage offered by terrain and non-combustible construction had to be utilized. And the situation called for advancement into the area involved in fire with water streams once the main fire was controlled. For experience, it dictated that the actual extinguishment could only begin then. This became the battle plan that the Boston Fire Department would follow for hours to come. They would keep the giant firestorm surrounded on all sides. Firefighters on the two sides that were relatively out of the wind would spray down the burning materials that their hoses could reach in an attempt to keep the firefighters who were directly in the downwind path of the fire from being overwhelmed by the heat and flames.

Jake:
[20:05] On the downwind side, hoses pumped oceans of water onto the raging front of the fire in an attempt to bring the temperature down and to keep the blaze from spreading across Howell Street. The perimeter was drawn at Boston Street, Dorset Street, Howell Street, and Dot Ave, with a total of 25 fire companies from around the city forming this initial perimeter.

Holding the Fire Line

Jake:
[20:28] The pictures taken at this time are terrifying. The flames are so intense that it’s hard to see how many houses are burning, and there’s this visceral sense of massive natural forces at work that dwarf the efforts of mankind.

Jake:
[20:45] Aerial photos show smoke blanketing the neighborhood, and then rising into the sky in a column that appears to be miles high. With the risk of the fire jumping across Howell Street ever-present, additional firefighters arriving on the scene were sent up to the rooftops on the far side of the street, keeping them soaked with hand lines and watching carefully for any new fires breaking out on the far side of the street. If the fire was allowed to cross Howell Street, the Southeast Expressway would be the next place where firefighters could make a stand, and that was a block and a half to the north. If that happened, it would mean sacrificing dozens more homes to the flames. In the meantime, burning embers from the firestorm rained down all over Dorchester, lighting at least 250 smaller fires, some many blocks from the initial scene. Some of these were put out by homeowners wielding brooms and garden hoses, and some were put out by roving fire trucks.

Jake:
[21:47] The line along Howell Street came close to breaking. With firefighters on the flanks forcing the fire to burn directly downwind toward Howl, the heat became overwhelming, even with all the protective gear in the world.

Jake:
[22:03] The department’s main report describes this critical moment. With the channeling of the fire’s fury in the direction of Howell Street, for a time, the intense heat being generated threatened to force firefighters’ position along the fire’s forward front to fall back. It was the realization that retreat now could cause the involvement of the entire area behind them, with a strong possibility of losing the fire apparatus committed to the Howell Street area along its entire length, for no other natural barrier closer than the Southeast Expressway remained. The area at the point of furthest extension was now almost untenable, and for many anxious moments, falling back seemed the only course. But all personnel held and rode out the high heat intensity by splashing exposed skins with water spray, reversing fire hats, and hunching low in accumulated puddles of water and the depressions offered by the terrain. A photo taken during the stand on Howell Street shows one firefighter diving into the cooling stream of a fire hose as flames rise from the buildings on either side of them. Another shows firefighters on a rooftop along Howell Street spraying down a small fire, while a homeowner standing behind them uses a garden hose to spray cooling water over the firefighters’ backs.

Fire Finally Cools

Jake:
[23:25] Finally, there were signs of success. The official department report says that the fire’s intensity started to abate at about 3.30 p.m., an hour and 52 minutes after the first call came in. By this time, there were 67 units from the Boston Fire Department on the scene, plus dozens more from the suburbs. Between them, they were pumping an average of 19,300 gallons of water onto these flames every minute.

Jake:
[23:56] Lieutenant James Kennedy’s command at the scene had been preempted after the first 10 or 20 minutes, with John E. Cloherty, the acting chief of the department, taking command. Luckily for us, Kennedy’s report on the fire for Division I continues after he was relieved, saying, As operations continued and the spread of fire was halted, Chief Cloherty dismissed the outside cities and towns and had all Boston companies advance lines directly into the fire area and cool the terrific heat from collapsed buildings and wet down the entire area. When the fire was thoroughly contained, additional engine and ladder companies were returned to quarters and the recall signal was terminated. The all-out order was given at 9.56pm, telling the firefighters on the scene that the fire was now officially out and they could start rolling up their hoses and packing their gear to return to their firehouses. 8 hours and 18 minutes had passed since the initial phone call came in reporting the fire. A few firefighters from a fresh shift were detailed to remain on the scene and watch for flare-ups, while everybody else could start thinking about home and bed.

Emergency Response Mobilizes

Jake:
[25:11] The fire was so destructive and cut such a wide swath through the neighborhood that Mayor John Collins called an emergency meeting of Boston’s Civil Defense Council on the late afternoon of May 22nd, before the fire was even fully out. Civil Defense referred to a network of federal, state, and local agencies that were responsible for the non-military response to large-scale disasters inside the U.S. Of course, May 1964 was still the height of the Cold War, less than two years removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, so everybody assumed that the main job of civil defense was to aid civilians in the very likely event of a global nuclear war. Instead, they were now being asked to organize a response to a fire that left a Dorchester neighborhood so devastated that it might as well have been nuked.

Jake:
[26:06] Setting emergency response plans into action, the Department of Public Health set up a triage center in Southie, and an elementary school in Dorchester was converted to an emergency service center, distributing food, clothes, and bedding to impacted families. The Boston Housing Authority opened 75 vacant apartments to serve as emergency shelters. The disaster protocol was activated at Boston City Hospital, with 100 nurses, doctors, social workers, and techs devoted to fire victims. The Department of Public Works sent emergency crews to make sure that the fire department would have water in their hoses and not drain the hydrants dry. Along with government agencies, the Civil Defense report on the fire notes that other offers of aid came in from partner groups before the end of the first day. The management of the Kenmore Hotel offered 25 rooms for 60 to 70 people. John Quigley of the Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea called by phone and offered facilities for 20 males and 6 females. A club consisting of wives of MIT professors and graduate students offered clothing for homeless families.

Damage and Miraculous Survival

Jake:
[27:19] By the time the smoke cleared, 35 homes were partially or completely burned. 200 civilians and 31 firefighters were injured, and over 300 people were left homeless. Amazingly, almost miraculously, nobody was killed.

Jake:
[27:43] In the days after the fire, the Boston Building Department sent teams to the site to assess the buildings that were still standing, determining which ones could be salvaged and which ones would have to be demolished. Contractors with bulldozers were not far behind. Fire Lieutenant Kennedy’s report adds that, fire companies were used at the fire location for several days afterwards to overhaul fire that was turned up when buildings were demolished and trucked from the area. The building department surveyed the area, and when all debris was removed, the department detail was discontinued and lines were made up.

Dorchester’s Changing Neighborhood

Jake:
[28:22] Dorchester in the 1960s was basically ground zero for white flight in the Boston area. All over the neighborhood, middle-class families were turning their backs on the city and moving to car-centric suburbs to become commuters, while the neighborhoods they left behind slowly crumbled. You’d be forgiven for assuming that the same phenomenon was happening on Bellflower Street, but city documents about the fire stressed that this block was the exception to the rule. The fire department report says, The Bellflower Street fire occurred in an area of Boston known as Dorchester, near its division with South Boston. The type of area is typical of many areas of Boston, which were constructed approximately 50 to 60 years ago, when apparently industrial and mercantile requirements brought about the gathering of housing for workers and reduced transportation requirements to a public transportation level.

Jake:
[29:20] With a lessening of industrial and mercantile requirements for employees, and the greater mobility engendered by motor vehicles and highways, it might be readily assumed that there was a gradual deterioration in areas of this type. This was not the case in this area. That emphasis is in the original, where the words are underlined, for it was an extremely well-kept and well-cared-for neighborhood in the city of Boston. In most cases, the owners resided on the property. The properties were for the most part modernized on the interior, with exteriors in fine condition.

Jake:
[29:58] Occupants of these structures were in general of the so-called middle-class group, and all exercised pride in the keeping up not only of their own property, but of the general neighborhood.

Urban Renewal Takes Over

Jake:
[30:12] So a large group of middle-class Bostonians, many of them homeowners, were displaced by a fire that the city fire department had struggled to contain. You might assume that the city of Boston would do everything in its power to make these victims whole. Instead, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the BRA, the city’s urban renewal agency, reacted like a shark that smelled blood in the water. In an era when broad swaths of the South End, Scully Square, and all of the West End had already been bulldozed to make the city more palatable for suburban commuters, the BRA immediately moved to condemn the burned properties, taking them from their owners for pennies on the dollar. An official city report describes a meeting facilitated by the BRA just days after the fire, where developers outlined their plan to move displaced homeowners and their tenants into public housing projects.

Jake:
[31:09] Generally, the reaction of the fire victims, 14 of the 16 destroyed buildings were owner-occupied, was noncommittal. Actually, the victims are still a little dazed, suspicious, and cautious of people they don’t recognize, and are upset very easily. Gee, wonder why. In order to determine the feasibility and advantages of renewing the Bellflower Street area through the utilization of urban renewal techniques, the staff has studied a number of alternative urban renewal plans for the burned-out area. The best plan appears to be one which provides for a housing development with rentals as close as possible to the pre-fire level. The development would be Marksdale-type housing, with 25-30 units, renting at $85-90 per month for two bedrooms, $95-100 per month for three bedrooms, and $105-110 per month for four bedrooms, including heat. To date, our staff has interviewed and discussed re-housing with 51 of the 53 families displaced by the fire. While 32 families originally accepted keys to Boston Housing Authority apartments, only nine families have actually moved into the apartments so far.

Aftermath and Lasting Memory

Jake:
[32:28] Maps and aerial photos made in the aftermath of the fire show an enormous swath cut through the heart of the neighborhood. From Dorset Street, across Bellflower, and up to the backs of the houses on Howell Street.

Jake:
[32:44] Today, one massive building takes up most of the footprint of the burned-over area between Dorset and Bellflower, helping to knit the neighborhood back together. Called Bellflower Court, the brick apartment block was designed with architectural features on the Dorset Street facade that are meant to recall the shapes of the triple-deckers it replaced. A 2014 Globe retrospective on the fire describes this building. In 1981, a 113-unit apartment building was constructed on the site. The building, now run by the Boston Housing Authority, offers apartments to low and moderate-income residents who are elderly or disabled. A picture of firefighters spraying water on three-deckers during the fire is displayed in the building’s community room. To me, it seems ironic that public housing has replaced the neat, owner-occupied triple-deckers that burned. I wish we knew more about the long-term outcome of the residents who were displaced by the firestorm of May 22, 1964. How many of them could buy or rent new homes in the city? And how many were forced to stay in public housing or join the suburban exodus at the time?

Jake:
[34:00] If your family was one of the ones who fled the fire, or if you know somebody who was, why not get in touch? Or if you know somebody who was, get in touch with me.

Show Notes and Farewell

Jake:
[34:14] To learn more about the Bellflower Street fire of 62 years ago this week, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 353. The pictures of this fire are unbelievable, but I’ll mostly have links to other people’s collections. 1964 is recent enough that I have to be very careful to only include pictures that I’m confident are in the public domain. Long-time listeners will remember that I had to pay out a costly settlement after getting sued by a photographer a few years back. Along with lots of links to pictures, I’ll have primary sources for you to review. Like the reports written by Boston Fire Lieutenant James Kennedy and District Chief John R. Green. As well as the main Boston Fire Department report, which is a real page-turner. Which, I know sounds sarcastic, but I swear it is not. it is a compelling report. I’ll also include reports on the incident from the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Civil Defense Committee. If you’d like to get in touch with me, whether that’s to offer feedback or to tell about your family’s experience after the Bellflower Street fire, you can email us at podcast at hubhistory.com. I still have profiles for Hub History on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and over on Mastodon as at hubhistoryatbetter.boston.

Jake:
[35:43] These days, however, if you’re trying to reach out via social media, Blue Sky is your best bet, as that’s really the only social media where I’m actively posting and interacting with people. You can find me on Blue Sky by searching for hubhistory.com.

Jake:
[35:59] If you want to leave social media entirely out of the picture, just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link, and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. And if you do, drop me a line, and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.