On This Day…

Great Fire of 1901

May 3, 1901

The third largest urban fire in the U.S. (next to the Great Chicago Fire and the fire during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) starts in Jacksonville, Florida. The fire started at the Cleaveland Fibre Factory. In eight hours, it had burned 146 city blocks, destroyed more than 2,368 buildings, and left almost 10,000 residents homeless.