Saturday November 9th 1872 was a cloudless mild Indian summer evening with a glorious moon. By 6:00 PM the entire wholesale district was deserted. The main shopping area along Washington Street was bustling with people. A glow was visible through the basement windows from the Tebbetts, Davis & Baldwin Building, the very building that Blaney had left some forty minutes earlier.

Charlestown Police Officers William Brown and Thomas Sargent were tending the Prison Point drawbridge. They had just helped a schooner through the draw so that it would not delay the outbound 7:10 PM Eastern Railroad passenger train. They had all but finished when Brown commented "there is a fire in Boston". He had just noticed a small, distant barley perceptible glimmer.

John S. Holmes, a Boston lawyer chatting with a friend on Washington Street at Summer Street, saw smoke and ran towards it, shouting "Fire". It appeared to Holmes that a fiery globe was burning in the Kingston Street end of the basement while thick smoke poured from the third floor.

Daniel Marden, foreman of Engine 7 the T.C. Amory started his Company before the alarm. A passerby had rung the station bell and reported a fire on Bedford Street. As he arrived his men had recruited the crowd to push the steamer and hose carriage into South Street, where they immediately set to work, as of yet no alarm had been sounded.

In the weeks before the fire, a flu like disease called the "Epizootic" had affected nearly all of the horses in Boston. The disease, while rarely fatal, had horses sick in their stalls for a week to ten days. This was to have a tremendous impact on the mobilization of the Department to fires. In fact, on October 28 the Board of Fire Engineers had reduced the first alarm running card from six steam engine companies to one engine on all of the downtown fire alarm boxes. These factors were to play a major role as the Boston Fire Department responded to the largest fire in its history!

Boston Patrolman John M. Page of Station 4 heard yelling and ran after what he thought was a group of boys. As he turned the corner of Summer and Bedford Streets. He was shocked to see fire streaming from a building that he could not see. He was standing beside Box 52, he unlocked the door and sounded the alarm. Page remembering his orders issued a week before by the Fire Department for building fires during the Epizootic, "Any building fire with fire above the third floor, then a second alarm shall be sounded". Page sounded the second alarm from Box 52.

Above City Hall, in the Fire Alarm Office the box started to tap out. The operator looked out the window and saw flames. Box 52 was relayed to the stations at 7:24 PM November 9th, 1872. It was more than 15 minutes since Charlestown Patrolmen Brown & Sargent had noticed the fire.

Engine Company 4 the Barnicoat had now arrived, drawn by exhausted men. The Firefighters set to work beside Engine Company 7. As other Companies arrived, all drawn by gangs of exhausted men and boys, Chief John S. Damrell arrived on scene. In his 25 year career he had never seen such a sight. More serious fire had been reported from Box 52 in a 25 year span than any other fire alarm box in the City. Chief Damrell ordered the General Alarm. The Fire Alarm office transmitted the alarm, it was 7:45 PM.

The request for assistance went out of telegraph at 8:00 PM. Chief Damrell was requesting all the aid available be sent to Boston at once. Special Trains, who had clearance over all other trains on the line, highballed to Boston with fire apparatus of flat cars and men riding in coaches. These trains brought aid from Biddeford, Maine, Portsmouth and Manchester, New Hampshire, Worcester, New Bedford, Fall River. From the south came apparatus from Providence, Rhode Island, New Haven and Norwich Conn.

Local communities had all ready dispatched apparatus. The first to arrive was Cambridge Engine Co. 3, the Niagara at 8:15 PM. And the last was New Haven, CT. Engine 2 the H.M. Welch which arrived just before mid-night. Wakefield Firefighters had dragged their hand tub some 12 miles to Boston. Other companies arrived on scene from Charlestown, Somerville, Brookline, Medford, Malden, Watertown, Newton, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Waltham, Salem, Lynn, Reading, Lawrence, Charlestown Navy Yard, Watertown Arsenal, Haverhill and Tauton. Mutual Aid for the fire was 45 steam engines, 4 hand tubs, and 52 hose companies.

Thirteen persons were killed including Captain William Farry and Lt. Daniel Cochran both of Ladder Company 4. In addition two Cambridge Firefighters were killed. The body of Cambridge Firefighter William Frazier of Hook & Ladder 1 was never recovered. 776 buildings destroyed, property loss of seventy five million dollars.