The look of downtown Perry changed dramatically this week 118 years ago.
A large fire burned down more than a dozen buildings overnight on November 20th. Fire historian and Iowa Fire Museum owner Brian Eiteman says it started in the Mitchell Livery Stable where Ben’s Five and Dime is now.
“By the time the fire department had got there it had jumped across the street. Of course back then, all of the buildings in that were were of course wood framed buildings, and it started working its way down the road to the south. By the time Des Moines Fire was called, and Madrid Fire Department was called, by the time Des Moines came in on the interurban railroad it was just too late. It had conflagrated through, across both sides of the street and just took all the buildings down.”
Eiteman says Perry changed completely that day.
“After those buildings burnt down they built brand new, spanking, three-story buildings in town. Fire department wise we had no way to get up to the third floor, all we had were wooden hand ladders, probably single fly so maybe 20 feet at the top. So we had to completely adjust everything that we did up to that time for fire suppression.”
Eiteman says they never determined what caused the fire.