Photo from Elizabeth Moore Isham
A little after 1:00 p.m. on Valentine's Day, 1953, your webmaster received a phone call from Ken Barrett at the TELE SHOP excitedly reporting that the Lawson Lumber Yard was ablaze.
I, like many other Birmingham residents that cold Saturday afternoon, rushed over to the corner of Forest and Brownell (now Brown and Peabody) to view a truly spectacular blaze. The photo appearing above was taken very early on, since no firemen or fire trucks are visible. Before the last embers were quenched, not only the main warehouse filled with lumber, but the office and white house behind it were consumed by the voracious flames.
When the large warehouse doors were finally opened, brilliant flames could be seen inside the building as well as shooting out of the roof.
Dense black smoke was soon billowing out of the building. One fireman can be seen climbing the extension ladder which had been built by Birmingham's own firemen under the direction of Chief Vern Griffith and a later Chief, Park Smith.
At one point, there were a number of firemen, including Don Cummings, standing on the roof of the one story office when the interior suddenly burst into flames. The spectators yelled at the men to get off that roof in a hurry. They managed to clamber down not long before the ceiling caved in.
Jax Kar Wash is presently on a portion of this site, east of the Ford-Peabody Mansion which at that time was the Masonic Temple. The rear of the Bloomfield Theater was south of the lumber yard. As a precautionary measure, youngsters attending the Saturday matinee were evacuated to safety.
There were so many fire engines pumping water onto the blaze from hydrants in the vicinity that the mains were practically sucked dry and it was difficult to maintain adequate pressure in the hoses aimed at the fire.
Yes, trucks from both Royal Oak and Pontiac were called upon to help battle the blaze.
Birmingham's ancient American La-France pumper, the one now owned by Bill Olsen, was pressed into service with Park Smith at the wheel patrolling east of Hunter Blvd. (now Woodward Ave.) alert for fires which might be started by flying embers landing on residential roofs.
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