Fires
and Firemen
by A. Lando
begins on page 189 of Sepher Lida
translated by Jack Shmukler
Who among those born in Lida at the end of the last century or the beginning
of the present does not remember the fear that descended, when in the middle
of the night the loud sound of the firemens’ brass horn would penetrate
the tightly closed shutters, the half dressed men and women, terrified,
milling around in the night darkened street, looking up at the red tinged
sky, trying to guess where the fire was. Here and there a fireman
would appear, fireman’s hat in one hand, buttoning up his uniform coat
with the other as he hurried on his way. After awhile one would hear the
rattle of steel rimmed wheels on stone cobbles – The wooden water barrels
on two wheeled carts were on the way.” Where is the fire?” The firemen
race off in the direction of the red painted sky. (There were no telephones
in those days)
If rumour had it that it was a brick house then we would be somewhat
reassured. The situation was much worse when fire broke out in a neighbourhood
with wooden buildings and in particular structures with thatch roofs
(there were still such houses in Lida at the time). It was horrifying to
see such a fire. If a thatch roof caught fire, it was pointless to
pour water; the roof should be pulled down with steel hatchets, as soon
as possible and the burning straw and embers put out on the ground More
than once it happened that a ball of burning straw would break away from
one roof, and carried by the wind = like a bird of fire – land on another
roof made of shingles or straw. In this way the fire would spread from
house to house and in a few short hours the whole street was up in flames.
(Smoke) Some of the old-timers (may they live to be a hundred and twenty)
still remember the big fire of (1891) when almost the entire city was destroyed.
That was not the first fire in Lida, there were a number of previous fires.
In the past Lida endured many wars and each time the fires left the
city in ruins. In olden days: - when Duke Vitavt captured the castle
(it was unlikely that Jews lived there at that time): later on when the
Tartars attacked the region in 1506; after that when a large army of the
Russian Tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovitch captured the castle and city in 1659
On a summer evening in the year of 1679 a horrendous fire broke out
(cause unknown) and in a matter of 1 hour 38 houses belonging to Jews and
Christians were burned down. Many of the people (townsfolk) both Jews and
Non Jews who didn’t manage to get out of the burning houses, perished in
the flames and many others received severe burn injuries.
Another huge fire occurred in Lida in 1843 . It started in the public
baths and rapidly spread to the surrounding areas. The entire synagogue
courtyard, a part of the market place and the whole of Vilna street burned
down.
The most horrific fire within living memory that occurred in Lida broke
out at the end of the first day of Sukot in 1891 . Nearly the whole
town went up in smoke. About a thousand dwellings. Almost all of them Jewish
(only 17 belonged to Christians): 400 residential houses, 600 “ COLD BUILDINGS
“, barns, shops. “THE BIG FIRE ‘ would be long remembered by the
Jews of Lida and was used as a basis for dating events – “ so many years
before or so many years after the big fire “.
In that same fire – not counting the old wooden built shul – nearly
all the kloyzes (houses of prayer) with the exception of the tailor’s
burnt down. The city “ RATUSH “ which was situated in the market
place – a colonnaded building that was built in the 18th century and served
in later years as a guard house – as well as a timber structure built in
the gothic style which was used as a firemen stable – were also destroyed
in the fire.
Lida’s volunteer firemen group
(Fire brigade)
So go and sign up
For the fire brigade
And put on a red uniform.
(a Jewish cabaret song )
Copyright © 2001, Jack Shmukler
Lida
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