Brant Rock / Ocean Bluff Fire 1941

Brant Rock / Ocean Bluff Fire

April 21, 1941

The following newspaper clippings are from Mom's ( Elsie's ) scrap book

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

LEFT HOMELESS by the forest fire which ravaged Marshfield yesterday was this pathetic group.

Shown with their sole worldly possessions stacked around them are Reginald Brillian, his mother,

and brother, Charles, as flames consume homes in background.

( Photo by Arthur Hansen, Herald Staff Photographer )

FLAMING HOUSE CRASHES TO GROUND ---- Just as this photo was taken, house in forground collapsed. Trip in roadster ( extreme right ) have window rolled up to protect them from terrific heat.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

OCEAN BLUFF IN FLAMES ---- Houses in virtually every stag of destruction are shown against

a terrifying background of smoke.

( continuation of above fold-out photo )

WHEELBARROW HOLDS ALL THEY COULD SAVE

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bennett stand tearfully and despairingly beside the few personal belongings

they were able to heap into a wheelbarrow and take away from their home as they flee the flames

that swept south shore cottage colonies destroying nearly 500 houses.

FIREMEN GET A HASTY BITE

Firemen are shown as they hastily grabbed a bite of food and a cup of coffee at the Marshfield fire.

CAPEN FAMILY ESCAPES

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Capen, year round residents of Ocean Bluff, shown at right.

At left John Shaw is shown helping them with belongings.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

FIREMEN TRYING TO MAKE STAND

Here on the beach side of Ocean street firemen are shown trying to make a stand to

halt Marshfield blaze.

ONE FAMILY'S BELONGINGS --- Ruth Publicover stands amid the bit of furniture saved from

the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Publicover.

FLAMES 30 FEET HIGH ---- Residents of house at right rush to save belongings as smoke-flecked

flames from burning house next door go higher than telephone pole on right.

OCEAN BLUFF FIRE AT HEIGHT ---- This airplane photo shows the flames sweeping south as

they levelled 600 homes in this beach section at Marshfield. Before fire was halted buildings at

right were completely destroyed.

TWO HOUSES MASS OF FLAMES ----- An inkling of the intensity of the Ocean Bluff

flames is gained from this graphic photo.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

WHERE THE FIRE WAS STOPPED ----- Edge of ruined area.

FIREMEN TRYING TO MAKE STAND

Here on the beach side of Ocean street firemen are shown trying to make a stand to halt

Marshfield blaze.

OCEAN BLUFF CASINO A FLAMING TORCH

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

FLAMES AND SMOKE shown in this aerial photo disclose a score of buildings aflame simultananeously as the fire swept through Ocean Bluff section of Marshfield destroying everything in its path.

FODDER FOR FLAMES ----- Wooden summer cottages were food for flames as a windswept fire

roared through the Ocean Bluff section of Marshfield. Here a cottage half consumed while a garage at the rear also goes up in flames

FIRE SWEEPING UP OCEAN STREET

The blaze is shown on its way up Ocean Street towards the Casino.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

SMOKE SO DENSE IT HID SUN ----- In foreground is house all but consumed by flames,

with chimney of another razed home looming in the background.

SMOKE HIDES BURNING HOUSES ----- Aerial photo shows portion of Ocean Bluff

in fire area.

ONLY A FIELD LEFT FOR A HOME

Typical of many families in Ocean Bluffs and neighboring colonies in the path of the flames that

leaped from one group of cottages to the next, were members of this family without a roof over

their heads. The wall of fire in the background and the pall of smoke overhead completed the grimmest sights the district has ever experienced.

HOME AFTER HOME GOES UP IN FLAMES

An Aerial view of the Brant Rock summer colony as the uncontrolled flames were destroying

scores of dwellings. Each blazing house was a fire in itself.

AREIAL VIEW OF OCEAN BLUFF BURNING --- photo was taken by Staff Sergt.

W. E. Fisher of the 101st Observation Squardron, U.S.A., piloting plane out of East Boston

Airport.

FLAMES LICK DWELLINGS as fire rages uncontrolled at Ocean Bluff.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

OCEAN BLUFFS SHORE FRONT WIPED OUT

An air view taken from the ocean side as flames were destroying dwellings by the score.

Some cottages were still masses of flame when the photo was taken. Many of the leveled

homes are hidden by the smoke. ( Photo taken by Austin H. Waldron ).

A ROARING INFERNO ---- Flames roar from the cellar to ridge pole in this Ocean Bluffs

summer home. Garage at extreme left was quickly ignited, and, like the house, burned

completely.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

GOING, GOING ---- A fire-hollowed house at Marshfield starts to collapse into a heap of

blazing timbers, while an adjoining garage, it's roof already tipped with flame, is about

to follow suit.

PROGRESS OF FLAMES may be seen in these photographs taken during the height of the Marshfield

conflagration. Picture at the left shows flames from a cottage spreading to a garage. At right, the collapased house opens the path to the view of destruction behind, and is doomed.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

THEY SAVED SOMETHING

This was a typical scene at Marshfield yesterday. It shows a woman with some of her belongings, saved from the fire. Miss Ruth Publicover is shown in picture.

FIRE DESTROYS FIRE TRUCK ---- This skeleton vehicle raced from Duxbury, one of a score of towns that aided Marshfield fight its Ocean Bluff flames yesterday, was trapped and consumed by the blaze. Another Duxbury pumper and two more from other towns were destroyed.

MOPPING UP AT MARSHFIELD ---- Weary firemen today began the long, hard job of cleaning up at

Ocean Bluffs, where yesterday's conflagration wiped out about 600 buildings. Above is a crew demolishing one of the gaunt, charred chimneys that marked where summer homes once stood.

THE SUN SHINETH THROUGH

The ruins of St. Anne's-by-the-Sea Church at Ocean Bluffs, with only the stone walls remaining

standing and the sun shining through the arch.

ALL THAT REMAINS OF ST. ANNE'S CHURCH ---- Completely gutted, only stone walls are left.

Fire truck destroyed in the blaze.

OCEAN STREET AND ITS DESOLATED RUINS

This picture, looking along Ocean street, Ocean Bluffs, gives a good idea of the damage done

by Monday's fire. House after house was turned into desolation as the flames roared unchecked.

To the left is all that remains of St. Anne's By-The-Sea Church. The fire originally started on the far

left centre in the marshes and soon became a roaring inferno, engulfing everything in sight.

Former home owners are shown walking along Ocean street, trying to identify what were once

their summer homes.

CHIMNEYS AND ELECTRIC LINE POLES ---- Only these remained standing in this section of Ocean Bluffs today after one of the most disastrous fires in the state's history consumes as it spread before

a 35-mile-an-hour wind. This photo is looking north

SCENE OF DESOLATION AFTER THE FIRE HAD PASSED

A view at 6th Avenue, Ocean Bluffs, showing rows of leveled homes. Only chimneys and charred

timber remain. At left, fire fighters are playing a hoseline on the smoldering ruins of a dwelling.

Nothing in the path of the fire escaped its ravages.

( continuation of above fold-out photo )

( missing to much text from clipping )

EVEN FIRE TRUCK BURNS ---- Completely wrecked is this fire engine that was in path of flames.

Local Newspaper - Evening Edition April 21, 1941

ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THEIR HOME

Miss Laura Cain, left, and a neighbor, Mrs. Dorothy Dewitt, look at the ruins of Miss Cain's

home at Roosevelt Road, Ocean Bluffs. Mrs. Dewitt's home was also burned flat.

AMOUNG THE HOMELESS ---- Two lonely cats, refugees from yesterday's conflagration at

Ocean Bluffs, returned to what was once their home today and perched on the ruins of a

vanished cottage.

FLAME-SWEPT OCEAN BLUFF ---- Brick chimneys are all that remain where houses stood.

Poles, leaning drunkenly, mark streets.

( continuation of above fold-out photo )

GENERAL VIEW OF FIRE-SWEPT AREA

This photo, taken from an airplane, shows the marshland, right, where the fire started, and beyond,

the large residential area in Ocean Bluffs and Brant Rock which was devastated. At left, homes in

the Fieldston section which were not in the path of the flames. ( Photo by Austin H. Waldron ).

WIDE TRAIL OF DEVASTATION LEFT BY RAGING FLAMES

Airplane view shows vividly what a wide path was taken by the fire. It shows scores of homes

and cottages burned to the ground. Only their chimneys, standing like tall tombstones, remain. At

left centre are the ruins of the St. Anne's-by-the-Sea Church and beyond that the Ocean Bluffs Casino. Finally, in the distance are still-burning cottages. ( Photo by Austin H. Waldron ).

AIR VIEW SHOWS AREA SWEPT BY DISASTROUS FIRE

Here is a general view taken after the fire had raced through the Ocean Bluffs section and spread

to Brant Rock, where it was finally checked. At the right, the flames leaped from marshland to a cluster of cottages. These and other homes and buildings on both sides of Ocean street were burned flat. Photo shows the ruins of St. Anne's-by the Sea Church and Ocean Bluffs Casino.

( Photo by Austin H. Waldron )

STARK CHIMNEYS MARK OCEAN BLUFF RUINS ---- Charred walls in centre foreground are all that

is left of St. Anne's Church on Ocean avenue. The fire swept hundreds of homes within a quarter mile circle of this church. Beyond are ruins of a hotel and casino. Two blocks up the street at left

was the Ocean Bluff post office and general store operated by Wright and Starrett. This view is looking toward Brant Rock.

( Photo by George Hill, Herald and Wide World Photographer )

MARSHFIELD AFLAME AND IN RUINS is shown in this aerial photo of the Marshfield forest fire

which swept the Cape summer resort of hundreds of homes and cottages yesterday. In the center,

bordering on Sunset Beach, may be seen a panorama of the section wiped out.

( Photo by George Hill, Herald and Wide World Photographer )

WHERE FLAMES RAN WILD AT OCEAN BLUFFS ---- Hot ashes and gaunt chimneys were all that

marked Ocean Bluffs today in the wake of yesterday's conflagration. This picture was taken at

5:30 this morning from an E.W.Wiggins Airways plane, piloted by Al Lecksheid.