Liveblog Recreates Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 - Patch
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patch.comI don’t have live access to current news feeds in this moment, but I can share the latest well-sourced information I can verify about the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 up to my last update.
Direct answer
- The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 occurred starting May 21, 1917, in the Old Fourth Ward. It burned for about 10 hours and destroyed roughly 300 acres and nearly 1,900 structures, displacing over 10,000 residents. It was contained by about 10:40 PM that night .
Context and key takeaways
- Start and spread: The fire began around 12:46 PM on May 21, 1917, and rapidly intensified due to hot, dry conditions and wind; efforts to control it included building firebreaks with dynamite and evacuations, with the blaze advancing toward Piedmont Park .
- Extent of damage: More than 50 city blocks were burned, and the destruction exceeded $5 million in 1917 dollars (roughly $100 million in modern terms, depending on the year’s inflation calculation) .
- Casualties and displacement: There was at least one death attributed to the fire (a heart attack during the blaze), and tens of thousands of residents were displaced, with extensive housing loss in the affected areas .
- Aftermath and rebuilding: The fire reshaped Atlanta’s Fourth Ward and influenced rebuilding and urban development patterns in the following decades; coverage and retrospectives emphasize the scale of disruption and the city’s recovery process .
Suggested sources for deeper reading
- Atlanta History Center blog on the fire’s centennial and its impact on the Fourth Ward .
- Wikipedia’s summary of the event for a concise overview and figures .
- Georgia-focused retrospectives (Georgia Public Broadcasting, Atlanta Magazine) that discuss the fire’s place in Atlanta’s history and rebuilding efforts .
If you’d like, I can pull together a compact timeline of key moments on May 21, 1917, with exact times and notable actions, or assemble a brief annotated map of the affected areas using historical references. I can also create a short, readable bibliography with links to each source.