If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 461

Strandgaten, Bergen, Norway, 1916 fire
 

Today's postcards are a good argument for never using magnetic photo album pages and/or tape on postcards or photos. These remarkable, but in far less than perfect condition, photo postcards show the devastation from the 1916 fire in Bergen, Norway.  This first unused Eneret & M (Mittet) & Co. postcard is of Strandgaten and has the number 50 at the lower left corner on the reverse.

Torvet, Bergen, Norway, 1916 fire

 

The second card shows Torvet and has the number 55 on the reverse.  It seems to capture a feeling of woe with the rain, umbrellas, lingering smoke and people walking around. 

The card below shows Strandgaten from a different angle is number 51.  Dick Thompson’s scrapbook collection has a series of a dozen or so cards of the fire all in similar condition.  A few of the cards are shared this week.

Strandgaten, Bergen, Norway, fire 1916

There are have been at least 15 major fires in Bergen.  During the 10 hours of the fire on the 15th and 16th of January 1916, 380 buildings housing 388 shops, 242 workshops, 42 factories, 219 offices, 612 apartments, and 219 storage rooms burned down in the city center and 2700 people were displaced.  Also affected were 3 newspaper companies, 4 hotels, 6 insurance companies, and two schools. 

Wooden buildings along the waterfront area in Bergen, Norway ca 1930s or 1940s

Many of the buildings along the waterfront area in Bergen are wooden but as the pictures from 1916 show, many others were stone or brick.  The postcard above looks to have been taken probably in the 1930s or 1940s and does not have the publishing or distributing company named or an identifying number on the reverse.

 The 1916 fire started when a workman accidentally set fire to a ball of black oakum made of tarred fiber and used to seal joints in wooden vessels and deck planking on iron and steel ships.  It was an extremely windy day and when he tossed the lit piece of oakum out of the work shed instead of going into the sea as intended it was blown back to the shed where soon the entire structure was a blaze.  The wind spread the fire along Strandgaten, shown in the top card photo, and towards the Market Square and the wooden warehouse buildings that “burned like tinder.”  Soon it was evident that Strandgaten could not be saved and fire-fighting efforts moved to stop the fire at Torgallmenningen or the Market Commons area.  The worst of the fire was to the west; however, with help from the military the fire was stopped at the art museum.  The destroyed area was fenced off and ruins that posed a threat were later dynamited. 

 Markeveien, Bergen, Norway, 1916 fire

The fire burned upward along Markevein toward the Engen district.  This card has the number 52 at the lower left corner on the reverse.

 The burned out remains of the Holdts Hotel, Bergen, Norway, 1916 fire.

This card is identified as number 54 at the lower left corner on the reverse and shows people looking at the ruins of the fire.

Torgallmenningen (Market Commons), Bergen, Norway, 1916 fire

This card has the identifying number 53 at the lower left on the reverse.  Efforts were made to control and stop the fire here at Torgallmenningen.  Spraying water on the Stock Exchange Building and the Bank Building making it possible to rescue them and to stop the fire from spreading.  The entire area between Torgallmenningen and where the fire started on Murallmenningen, including the fire station that was built following the 1855 fire, was destroyed.  In one night the city center, with some buildings dating from the Middle Ages, was reduced to ashes. 

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_fire_of_1916