Hampton Roads' Greatest Fires-- Part 2

BURNED AGAIN-- 33 stores and buildings burned April 9, 1884, but led to the creation of the first fire department.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION-- 1.5 million bushels of wheat fed the flames when a Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad grain elevator ignited Sept. 4, 1915, killing one and destroying numerous structures on the Newport News waterfront.

ICE AND SMOKE-- Norfolk's downtown business district lost two whole blocks in a Jan. 1, 1918 blaze during weather so cold that water from the hoses froze.

POSH PLAYGROUND IN ASHES-- Twenty thousand people watched at Old Point Comfort as a March 7, 1920, fire burned the five-story Hotel Chamberlin.

WATERFRONT INFERNO-- A late afternoon explosion and fire on Nov. 8, 1934, incinerated a C&O grain elevator, killing four and scorching the Newport News waterfront.

--DaCoot