Detroit, MI Grand Avenue Fire, Sept 1884

A Serious Blaze in Detroit

Detroit, Mich., Sept. 18.- Fire broke out yesterday afternoon in Thomas Moore’s planing-mill on High street. Delbridge, Brooks & Fisher’s planning-mill was also ignited, and the flames soon leaped across Grand River avenue, setting fire to Reed’s block of stores, Crapo’s lumber yard and Engel’s brick block. A dozen or more persons were passing along Grand avenue when the flames leaped across there. Before they could get out of the way several had their necks and faces painfully blistered. About seven o’clock this evening, as a great crowd was viewing the ruins, a barrel of gasoline exploded. George Barry, aged eight, and William Coleman, aged sixteen, were badly but not dangerously burned. Total loss about $60,000.

Decatur Morning Review, Decatur IL 19 Dec 1884

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September 17. A fire broke out about 2:30 P.M. on High Street, between Third and Fourth Streets; it extended to Grand River Avenue, and destroyed two planing mills, several small stores, and six or seven houses; the loss reaching probably $50,000.

The history of Detroit and Michigan, or, The metropolis illustrated: chronological cyclopaedia of the past and present, page 976

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