The 1879 DEADWOOD DAKOTA FIRE newspaper report

DEADWOOD, Dakota Ter., Sept. 27, 1879.
unknown newspaper

Between one and two o’clock yesterday morning the inhabitants of Deadwood were awakened by the cry of “Fire !“ and the barking of dogs, which soon aroused the whole city and suburbs to a sense of the imminent danger of destruction of a large amount of property by the flames that were issuing from some low frame buildings on Sherman street. The badly equipped and inefficient fire company turned out, but it was next to useless. The fire spread from house to house and block to block with such rapidity that people had to leave their business places and dwellings to be devoured, only too glad to escape with their lives.

Blown Up Into the Air.
As the flames proceeded along the business portion of the city now and again an explosion would take place from giant gunpowder and coal oil, sending dense columns of flames and smoke, mingled with fragments of the buildings) high into the air. Several fine, handsome brick buildings, of late construction, used as banks and commercial stores, with large stocks of goods and provisions in them, were thus blown up and the ruins consumed. The tire crept on and up the sides of the hills, destroying many private residences; and the trees, with their dry autumn leaves, all on fire, gave a peculiar and fantastic display.