40 Rare Vintage Photographs of Two Fires That Nearly Decimated Cripple Creek, Colorado in April 1896 ~ Vintage Everyday

In late April 1896, Cripple Creek, Colorado, endured two catastrophic fires over a period of 96 hours.

The first, on April 25, 1896, began around 1 p.m. when a gasoline stove overturned on the second floor of the Central Dance Hall on Myers Avenue. A brisk wind spread the fire to adjoining buildings. By the time the fire was out, two lives had been lost and eight blocks of the city's central business district had been destroyed.

Just a few days later, on April 29th, a second fire broke out. The headlines of the April 30, 1896, Rocky Mountain News declared:

CRIPPLE CREEK WIPED OUT BY FIRE / Second Conflagration Destroys Nearly All That Portion of the Town Not Touched by Flames—Thousands Are Destitute / Buildings Blown Up in an Attempt to Save the City / Three Men Are Dead and a Number Injured, Several of Them Fatally / Snow is Falling and Hundred of Campfires Dot the Surrounding Hills

The newspaper went on to include details of a fire that rendered 6,000 of the city's 16,000 residents homeless:

The second great fire came with the swiftness and deadly energy of the lightning's bolt. At 1 o'clock this afternoon fire started in the kitchen of the Portland hotel on Second street, below Myers...The whole city rushed to the scene, dropping tools from their hands. The fire jumped with a roar like a hungry giant at his food. Floods of water and the demolition of buildings with deafening explosions of dynamite were childishly impotent to stay the fire, and men stood with tears running down their cheeks, helpless.