Excerpts from the providencejournal.com:
When an alarm rang just before 11:30 p.m. on August 18, a fire was quickly spreading unseen through the Harborside Inn on Block Island, New Shoreham, Rhode Island.
Block Island Fire Chief Chris Hobe was awake, 2.5 miles away, when the box alarm came in at 11:23 p.m. A call came in about smoke seen on Water Street. Within four minutes, he arrived and found smoke pouring from an exhaust fan on the first floor. Soon, smoke was coming out of the eaves. At 11:52 p.m., he called for a second alarm, marking the first time mutual aid had been requested on the island.
This was exactly the scenario Hobe had prepared for during the previous winter, when he worked with mainland fire chiefs and local stakeholders to develop Block Island’s first mutual aid plan. The Harborside Inn, originally known as the Pequot House and later the Royal Hotel, was built in 1879. Its Victorian-era wood-frame construction made it highly vulnerable, using balloon framing—a method where 2x4 studs were spaced along the entire height of the building without fire breaks between floors. This meant that a fire could easily spread from the basement to the attic, which is exactly what happened when firefighters arrived.
Once all residents were safely evacuated, crews focused on preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings, some of which were just feet away and already hot to the touch. Adding to the challenge was the limited water supply—Block Island only had 300,000 gallons stored, far less than mainland towns. With help 13 miles offshore, water was a critical concern.
The Block Island Volunteer Fire Department, with only about 20 active members, saw over 30 firefighters respond to the scene. Junior members, as young as 14, helped out. Two members used an infrared drone to locate hot spots, while others used radios to guide water streams into the right areas.
As news of the fire spread, vacationing firefighters from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York arrived to assist. Onlookers helped drag hoses to Old Harbor to prepare for seawater use. Others moved propane tanks away from nearby buildings.
At 12:23 a.m., Chris Myers, the Block Island Ferry’s port captain, was woken up by a call about the burning hotel. He immediately began coordinating emergency transport. By midnight, New England Airlines was alerted, and two planes carrying firefighters took off within minutes.
Firefighters also arrived via U.S. Coast Guard vessels and fireboats from Newport, Narragansett, and North Kingstown. Ladder trucks had to be ferried across, a journey that took over an hour. By 1:30 a.m., the first ladder trucks reached the island, and by dawn, three ferries had delivered more than 60 firefighters, including two ladder trucks, engines, and an incident command post.
With no injuries reported, the fire was eventually contained. However, the Harborside Inn was a total loss. Evacuees were taken to the National Hotel and the Block Island School, which became an emergency shelter. Taxi drivers and school bus drivers helped move displaced guests.
Throughout the night, the water company superintendent monitored the town’s supply closely. At 3 a.m., they switched to seawater, despite the risk of corrosion, to avoid a secondary crisis. Firefighters used around 3 million gallons of water, and it took two days for the system to recover.
In the following months, departments from southern Rhode Island and Connecticut met to refine their mutual aid plans, considering factors like weather and time of day. In June, fireboats and crews conducted trial runs to test response times and equipment compatibility. A new ladder truck is expected in January, and Hobe hopes to raise $10 million to build a larger fire station with seven bays, improving protection for the historic downtown area.
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