DOWNTOWN DENVER SCENE OF 1920 FIRE DISASTER

On July 9, 1920, a conflagration swept downtown Denver.

Flames gutted East Turner Hall - a social venue at 20th and Arapahoe streets - and spread to a hotel, an auto company and homes.

Sections of the hall collapsed showering bricks and cinders - and sewing mayhem.

In a daring rescue, police patrolman Forrest Ross carried a semi-conscious woman from the Madison Hotel, The Rocky Mountain News reported.  

A general alarm summoned 22 engine and truck companies, almost all of Denver's firefighting force, however, low hydrant pressure disrupted operations.

Quoted by the News, W. F. R. Mills, manager of the city water department, said: “An attempt to direct twelve hose streams from two six-inch mains would naturally tend to reduce the pressure, to say nothing of the fact that everywhere demand was being made on the mains by garden hoses used in fighting the score or more of fires that sprang up." 

The address of East Turner Hall was 2150 Arapahoe Street. Earlier that day, firefighters contended with a major blaze at St. John's First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1846 Arapahoe Street. Both structures are long gone. 

[Photos: Public domain]