As Little Compton continues to mark its 350th anniversary this year, here’s a look back on one of Little Compton’s hardest nights:

On December 31, 1917, a fire of massive proportions broke out on Little Compton Common. At one point, every building on the Common was burning, and it was thought that they would all be lost.

The fire is thought to have started in the upstairs of the Nathanial Church house at two o’clock in the morning. It is said that the fire was started by a farmhand putting a kerosene lamp under his bed to keep warm. The house was then owned by Frank Sousa Cardoza and occupied by him and his family, and Mrs. Nathaniel Church, her daughter and granddaughter. It was burned to the ground, and the deserted Brown house across the street was reduced to ashes.

At two o’clock in the morning, Alice Gifford, who lived with her grandmother Mrs. Church on the second floor of the Cardoza house, discovered the flames in their apartment, and quickly notified the night telephone operator, Ephraim Palmer, who made “every wire radiating from the village” hum. Senator Frederick A.H. Bodington was the first on the scene and organized a bucket brigade of eventually 100 men as they arrived. 

The occupants of the house had no chance to save anything, grabbing whatever they could for clothing to go out into the -10 degree night. Wrapping her four-year-old grandchild in a blanket, Mrs. Church escaped with Miss Gifford in their night clothes and were welcomed into the nearby home of Pardon Brownell. The northwest winds blew strongly across the open fields and rendered the house to ashes very quickly.

Senator Bodington and the bucket brigade worked valiantly to save the outbuildings and other homes nearby (At one point the roof of Senator Bodington’s house caught fire). The Tiverton Chemical responded to Ephraim Palmer’s call, but by the time they arrived the chemicals were frozen and useless. Fire Warden William Snell sent a call to Chief Davoll of the Fall River Fire Department, but he refused to come because of the temperature, stating that the chemical would be frozen before arriving.

The low temperature was the only way to save the buildings located around the Common because when water was thrown on them it froze, it covered the buildings with ice.

The Congregational Church was very close to the Cardoza and Brown houses and was in imminent danger.  Volunteers covered it with water, which turned to ice, encasing the building. Several men were kept on the roof all night to make sure the fire did not catch. There were no ladders high enough to reach the roof of the church, so the men went up into the belfry and climbed out.

Other homes in the area caught fire, as well as Wilbur’s Store, but these fires were able to be extinguished.

The building belonging to Francis Tripp that housed the post office, telephone office and barber shop was also kept safe. All the mail and valuables from the post office were removed by the postmistress, Beatrice Kelly.

 The Nathaniel Church/Cardoza house sat across from the current Brownell Library. The Old Meeting House was close by and was destroyed by the fire. This building was erected in 1693 with timber furnished by Colonel Benjamin Church. It was rebuilt from time to time and had been a church, town hall, post office, dwelling house, and even the Poor House.

Little Compton endured many more serious fires before its own fire department was established.