The vast biography of Brunswick records many notable fires in the history of the town, since its settlement in 1628. Yet, only one conflagration has the distinction of being remembered as the "Great Brunswick Fire".
The blaze occurred on December 13th of 1825 when the State of Maine was just five years young and the population of Brunswick was roughly a scant 3,240 people. This was a time when the riverbanks of the Androscoggin overflowed with cotton manufactories, lumber mills, grist mills, tenement houses, and many other various shops and businesses.
In that year, John Quincy Adams was the 4th President of the United States, Albion K. Parris of Portland was the fifth Governor of Maine, and "Brunswick and Topsham were flourishing little villages, brisk in Lumbering business", and "saw mills" were located on "each side" of "the Androscoggin River".
It was approximately eight o'clock in the morning when the fire initially began in the mill of, "either the Brunswick Cotton Manufactory or the Maine Cotton and Woolen Factory". These mills were built upon "land owned by the Cabot Manufactory Mill" and were set on the edge of the Androscoggin River, just above where the "swinging bridge" exists today. If fighting such a fire in 1825 wasn't difficult enough outdoor temperatures on the morning of December 13th were a harrowing thirteen degrees below zero and threatened to severely hamper the efforts of the citizenry to battle the blaze. Brunswick's Deputy Fire Chief Clark Labbe tells that even today "13 below would make firefighting very difficult. Our protective clothing and equipment is much better but, water still freezes".
At the time Brunswick did not have any type of organized fire service, other than a few men who devoted themselves to operating the town's only fire pump, and adequate fire suppression relied heavily upon the active assistance of the Town's population.
At the time of the "Great Fire" Brunswick residents had but only one piece of fire fighting apparatus. The "hand-tub", better known as the Mechanic, had been purchased in 1810, some 15 years previous, and was already antiquated.
Many residents and leading citizens of Brunswick had petitioned the Town to purchase the "Mechanic" but their pleas fell upon deaf ears. Although a "warrant" to purchase the mechanic was introduced at a Town Meeting, it eventually "was dismissed". However, residents firm and undaunted in their task banded together and finally "individual citizens" had purchased the Mechanic themselves.
The Mechanic was a centrifugal force pump built upon the deck of a wooden wagon that, in time of fire, was manned by a team of men who manipulated the seesaw-like action of the pumps handle with simplistic brute force. Water was fed to the Mechanic by hand-filled buckets of water gathered by citizens and delivered by conga-line to the Mechanic's wooden troth.
Just a few months prior, a large fire had ravaged the New Brunswick areas surrounding the Miramichi River in Canada, where the inferno had consumed approximately three million acres of forest and settlements and caused the deaths of more than 150 people.
This Canadian fire probably weighed heavily on the minds of Brunswick citizens as they banded together to fight their own blaze, which was quickly spreading into town from the river's edge. Even in present times, this inferno was a firefighter's nightmare.
Stored bales of cotton had added to the dry timbers that constructed the mills. Floor planking would have been soaked in flax oils, and loose cotton most probably littered the floor. All of these flammable substances further fueled the fire and were eagerly consumed by the flames. Moreover, the frigid breezes blowing in off the river most probably fanned the hungry flames of the inferno.
It wasn't long before the flames had jumped from structure to structure along the crowded banks of the river's edge. The fire was rapidly moving eastward, westward, and in southerly directions, and had spread to the tenement buildings that housed many mill workers and their families.
Citizens struggled diligently to battle the frigid cold and haul the ice covered buckets of water up the frosty banks from the raging current of the river, through the conga-line of volunteers, to the waiting troth of the Mechanic.
Men hurriedly pushed and pulled the handles of the Mechanic to force a supply of water to the Firemen who trained their frosty nozzles on the rapidly spreading fires, doing their best to extinguish the consuming flames of destruction. Fortunately, these citizens were not entirely inexperienced or untrained in fighting fires.
In early March of 1822, when Nathaniel Hawthorne, Franklin Pierce, and Henry Longfellow, were students at Bowdoin, a fire broke out in a dormitory structure at Bowdoin College. The fire was "located where Maine hall is now situated", and had begun "at three in the afternoon", was fought by citizens, faculty and students, and was extinguished by "seven that evening".
A much larger fire, in September of 1823, raged from the "Rocky Hill" area and "swept four miles toward" Brunswick, "leaving a path a mile wide" and consuming "twenty-two sets of building". Therefore, in December of 1825, primarily due to the freezing temperatures and the antiquated fire fighting equipment on hand, citizens could only let the fires already burning run their destructive course. Most probably, the citizen-brigades merely concentrated on stopping the ravenous extension of the fire, and allowed the "lost causes" to simply burn themselves out.
When the conflagration was over, both the Brunswick Cotton Manufactory and the Maine Cotton and Woolen Factory lay in a heap of smoldering ruins. The path of the fire burned to Maine Street, past Mill Street, Bow Street, and along Union Street. "Two stores, a grist mill, and two sawmills" were gone. "Five dwelling houses" were completely destroyed, and "a number of mechanic shops" were either laid to waste or suffered some damage.
In all, "thirty-three buildings" were gone, "eleven families" consisting of "sixty-eight persons" were homeless, "fifty persons" were out of work, and more than "ninety thousand dollars damage" had been done.
The "Great Brunswick Fire of 1825" was a hard-learned lesson for all concerned and "eight hundred dollars was appropriated" for the purchase of a new, state of the art hand-tub, affectionately called the "Hydraulian".
"Twenty five men" were committed to the crew of the Hydraulian and the "Washington Fire Club" was formed to become the first organized volunteer fire service in Brunswick. Volunteers were required "to keep, in readiness for use, a canvass bag, a bed key, and two leather fire buckets". Although the two leather buckets were used to transport water to the Hydraulian or the Mechanic, the bed key is of ironic interest. Since beds were often considered an irreplaceable family heirloom Chief Labbe believes the "bed keys were carried to disassemble the bed so that it could be saved from the fire".
By 1826, "The Brunswick Watch Association", the forerunner of the Brunswick Fire Department, was formed to patrol the town and specifically look for fires and, more importantly, to exert some measures of fire prevention.
By 1875, the hard lessons learned some fifty years earlier had paid off and the town had come to own four hand-tubs. The "Niagra #3", the second hand-tub to bear that name, was purchased in 1870 and remained in service until 1919. "Niagra #3" is still owned by the present day Brunswick Fire Department and often appears in parades.
Today's Brunswick Fire Department is a far cry from the first Watch Association of 1826. According to Chief Labbe, "Brunswick has a combination department" made up of full time and on-call personnel.
Full timers consist of "a fire chief, two deputy chiefs, three captains, three lieutenants, eighteen firefighters, one administrative assistant and a part time clerk". The Call Department is made up of approximately 30 members who respond" as needed and are "notified by pagers and paid based on their response". Additionally, a mutual Aid pact calls upon the personnel and equipment of surrounding towns when large fires threaten the community.
As for their fire apparatus Chief Labbe says, "Brunswick currently has 3 engines, 1 ladder, 1 tanker and 3 rescues (ambulances) stored inside, in addition 2 4x4 brush fire trucks, 4 staff vehicles, 1 boat, and a hazardous materials response trailer, all in active use are stored outside". And Labbe adds that "last year the department responded to 843 fire calls and 2,124 emergency medical calls" for assistance.
Firefighters today receive many hours of monthly training, and are certified in specialized fields of work, such as interior and exterior fire suppression, crash victim extrication, and many receive training as an Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic.
Although some 178 years have passed, and Brunswick's population has increased by more than 19,000 persons, the Brunswick Fire Department is still dealing with some antiquated problems.
The present fire station, built in 1919, has hindered the Department from updating some of the older apparatus in order to better protect the town. "When this station opened" Labbe explains it was designed to house "both horse drawn and early motorized equipment". "Unfortunately" Labbe adds, today "new ladder trucks are larger and will not fit in the current fire station".
The eldest fire truck, "is a 1977 American La France aerial ladder" which "had a scheduled 25 year replacement and should have been retired" according to Labbe. "As soon as a new central fire station is approved" Labbe adds, "we will begin work on specifications for a new truck".
The most recent piece of apparatus "is a 1999 American La France rescue-pumper". Although the new pumper was purchased "with the intent of placing it at the new East Brunswick Fire Station that is yet to be built" it is in service. "The rescue-pumper carries a complete complement of both fire and emergency medical equipment" Labbe explains, "allowing it to respond to all emergencies". At present, fire prevention is a fire fighters first job and Brunswick Fire fighters are the first to recall the lessons that were learned from the "Great Fire of 1825" when, out of the ashes of that terrible event arose the birth to today's Brunswick Fire Department.
Note: "Our Town, Brunswick Maine", "History of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell" by Wheeler and Wheeler, and the websites of the State of Maine and the Brunswick Fire Department, were used and quoted in this article.
Laurie S. Dell is a local writer and historian who frequently contributes feature articles on local histories to the Times Record. She can be reached at