A sepia toned reproduction of a Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum photograph in postcard form. This is a view of the Chihuahua Hill fire of 1907. The back caption on the top left reads: “FIRE – 1907 Presented by the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum Chihuahua Hill fire with view of Old Bisbee in front including Pythian Castle and the Orpheum Theatre. The photograph is from the Pavlovich Collection and the postcard is from Burl Schweikart Collection. The postcard is unused. Burl Schweikart collection.

On June 28th 1907, a fire broke out when a gas stove exploded at the Colorado Boarding house on OK Street. Mrs. Carter, the house’s manager, alerted all the tenants who escaped unharmed. Several elements impacted the severity of the Chihuahua Hill fire, among them was wood framed buildings, gas-based stoves, bad water availability, and high winds contributed to the size and strength of the fire. The volunteer fire fighting for faced difficulty fighting the blaze. A lack of equipment prevented them from spraying the two- and three-story homes. In the attempt to evacuate caused wagon wheels to run over the fire men's hoses effecting water pressure. All of the miners working underground were brought out to help the firemen and like the great October fire of the following year, they dynamited houses to create a firebreak to help end the spread. Following the Chihuahua Hill fire, seventy-six houses were destroyed and another thirty houses were damaged which left a thousand residents homeless. Though no lives were lost, $200,000 worth of damages were caused and insurance only covered half of the expenses. Before the catastrophe a woman named Emanuel Anderson predicted the exact date and time of the fire three weeks before its occurrence.

2018.23.4