Licking County village of Utica saw 7 major fires in 1888-1909, before a 1910 bond issue

If one needed one word to describe the residents of Utica, Ohio, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the word resilient comes to mind.

In the years between 1888 and 1909, the village suffered seven significant fires. The estimated monetary damage to businesses and homes is equivalent to $7 million in today's currency, but the emotional toll on the citizens when they heard the fire alarm sound must have been horrific, especially since many of these fires happened at night.

In 1880, the village council tried to help the volunteer fire department and appropriated $551 for the purchase of a hand pump engine. To make sure the pumper had a water supply, they dug six wells around town. However, there were issues with the pump. In March 1888, when the Opera House and the Presbyterian Church burned, the pumper wouldn’t work because of an ice buildup in the hose. The fire was finally contained by bucket brigades, but the Opera House and Presbyterian Church were destroyed.

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The pumper had another chance nine years later, on June 27, 1897, when a fire started at 1 a.m. in a livery barn on the alley behind North Main Street. Just a few days before, the pumper had been used to clean out a well and put away. When the volunteers rolled it out, the hose was full of sand and gravel, so it was useless. The fire spread north, south and west, burning barns, storerooms and a business on North Main Street. When the fire began, a call for help had been sent to the Newark Fire Department. They loaded a fire engine and crew on a railroad car and made the 13-mile trip in 14 minutes. They fought the fire for about four hours and afterward were fed a free meal at a restaurant in town.

In July 1906, another fire destroyed a wool warehouse and bowling alley on South Main Street. The scariest part of that fire was that 10 feet from the burning warehouse was a barn with a wagon of nitroglycerin. If the fire had spread, the Utica Herald surmised “that perhaps a hundred persons would have been killed and many homes destroyed.”

In January 1907, a fire burned almost a block on South Main Street. Later that year the village council added a chemical fire engine and a hook and ladder truck to their firefighting capabilities.

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On Sept. 16, 1908, at 3:30 in the morning, a fire destroyed the American House Hotel. Eight months later, on May 10, 1909, another fire was discovered at 3 a.m. at the Vance Motel. The flames spread up and down North Main Street. The fire pump had no available water source to use. Calls were placed to Newark and Mt. Vernon for help, but neither had any engines to send. The citizens fought the fire with buckets and finally succeeded in putting it out.

The residents had had enough. In 1910, they approved a bond issue that added water lines and fire hydrants in the city, and in 1911, the Utica council established a village fire department.

If you would like more information, these stories and more will be presented at 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Utica library. The event is free and open to all.

Doug Stout is the Licking County Library local history coordinator. You may contact him at 740.349.5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org .

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Licking County village of Utica saw 7 major fires in 1888-1909, before a 1910 bond issue