Headlines at Hopkins: news releases from across
the 
university Headlines
@Hopkins
News by Topic: news releases organized by
subject News by Topic
News by School: news releases organized by the 
university's 9 schools & divisions News by School
Events Open to the Public (campus-wide) Events Open
to the Public
Blue Jay Sports: Hopkins Athletic Center Blue Jay Sports
Search News Site Search the Site

Contacting the News Staff: directory of
university 
press officers Contacting
News Staff
Receive News Via Email (listservs) Receive News
Via Email
Resources for Journalists Resources for Journalists

Virtually Live@Hopkins: audio and video news Virtually
Live@Hopkins
Hopkins in the News: news clips about Hopkins Hopkins in
the News

Faculty Experts: searchable resource organized by 
topic Faculty Experts
Faculty and Administrator Photos Faculty and
Administrator
Photos
Faculty with Homepages Faculty with Homepages

JHUNIVERSE Homepage JHUniverse Homepage
Headlines at Hopkins
News Release

Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9898

January 16, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Glenn Small
media@jhu.edu
443-287-9905


The Great Baltimore Fire: 100 Years Later
Professor Examines the Historic Blaze that
Destroyed Downtown Baltimore

Within an hour of the start of the Great Baltimore Fire on Feb. 7, 1904, the fire chief of the city was struck by a sparking electrical wire and incapacitated for most of the 30-hour blaze. Instead of an experienced fire chief leading the battle to contain the worst fire in Baltimore's history, the job fell to the department's district engineer and the city's energetic young mayor. Elected at age 35, Robert McLane was the youngest mayor in Baltimore's history.

The inexperienced McLane, a graduate of Johns Hopkins, stood in the streets during the fire, cheering on the firefighters, said Pete Petersen, a professor of management in the Johns Hopkins School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), and author of the soon-to-be-published book The Great Baltimore Fire (Maryland Historical Society, February, $29.95).

"It was the macho thing to do, to be at the fire" — but perhaps, Petersen said, not the smartest approach from a leadership point of view. McLane failed to set up a communications command center, and as a result, Petersen said, he was impossible to locate during the crisis. One result was that mayors of other cities, including New York, were unable to contact McLane to make sure he wanted those cities to send help. New York did send firefighters, but that help "came late," Petersen noted.

Petersen and other experts on the Great Baltimore Fire will take part this spring in a lecture series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the fire. The series, which begins March 2, is part of the Johns Hopkins noncredit Odyssey program, which offers a wide array of personal enrichment courses, from foreign languages, history and philosophy to writing grant proposals.

Some of the other spring offerings are "The Story of Ireland," a 10-week course delving into the rich history and heritage of the Emerald Isle; "Mystery Loves Company: Conversations with Leading Mystery Writers;" and "Sex, Terrorism and Robber Barons: The Post-Soviet Reality," an eight-week course featuring, among others, Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Simon Kukos, CEO of Yukos oil, the Russian oil giant at the center of a confrontation between big business and the Kremlin.

Petersen will begin the course on the Great Baltimore Fire with a March 2 lecture titled "Big Fire Here: Must Have Help At Once."

In a matter of hours, more than 70 blocks of downtown Baltimore, an area equal in size to the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, burned to the ground. More than 1,500 buildings were lost in the blaze, and damage was estimated at $150 million (in 1904 dollars).

Petersen spent four years researching and writing his 232-page work on the fire, and spent many long hours in his office in the Downtown Center at the corner of Fayette and Charles streets, with a view of the area that was destroyed by the fire. He recently sat down to talk about the book and the fire.

To listen, go to www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/audio-video/fire.html.

"The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904," a six-session series with five lectures and a walking tour, is being offered in cooperation with the Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Historical Society. For the complete list of Odyssey classes with cost and registration information, go to www.odyssey.jhu.edu.


Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/
   Information on automatic e-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address.


Go to Headlines@HopkinsHome Page