Last Sunday, at about ten o’clock, with a high wind blowing from the westward, afterwards more southerly, a fire started in Quampacha Bottom, on Dr.
Fires
May 3, 1900
Vineyard Gazette
The forest fire which races across the large section of the island known as “The Plains” lasted two days and burned through to West Tisbury.
1996
July 5, 1996
The Tisbury fire, which began one summer evening in the very heart of downtown Vineyard Haven, destroyed 62 buildings valued at $200,000. Photographs of the center of the village the next morning show smears and patches of black spread across a grid of lanes and roads. Every store but one burned to the ground.
1965
July 23, 1965
A spectacular blaze, the cause of which is not definitely determined, destroyed the freight she and outer end of the Oak Bluffs steamboat wharf late Wednesday afternoon, involving a loss of property owned by Vincent’s Fish Market, on the dock property, the value of which was set at $30,000 and a loss to the Steamship Authority, covered by insurance, not yet even approximated. The fish market equipment was uninsured, according to David Vincent, the proprietor.
January 15, 1965
The Ocean View Hotel, one of the landmarks of Oak Bluffs, was completely destroyed by fire in the early hours of this morning, as firemen from three towns fought in a brutal 7-degree temperature to contain the blaze.
1961
April 7, 1961
Fire turned the Edgartown Playhouse into a furious inferno Monday night, and three hours after the discovery of the blaze the large, forty-one year old building was completely devastated, despite the long and tireless efforts of firefighters from three towns who poured tons and tons of water into the theatre.
1950
May 12, 1950
Only the quick action of Capt. Samuel B. Norton, the skill and equipment of the Edgartown Fire Department, the aid of the sprinkler system just installed and not ready to function automatically, and one or two elements of chance such as a lack of wind and the time at which smoke and flames appeared over and through the building, prevented the destruction of the Harbor View Hotel in what was so nearly a disastrous conflagration late Wednesday afternoon.
1926
January 15, 1926
Prompt action and unexcelled presence of mind on the part of Frank Bodfish and Capt. Hartson Bodfish averted what might have been a serious fire in the Barnacle Club at Vineyard Haven yesterday forenoon. Very few members frequent the club during the morning hours and it was by the merest chance that Frank Bodfish entered the room about 10:30 and found it filled with a dense, suffocating smoke.
