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CA - Los Angeles County Los Angeles,Ocean Park Fire 1912, Postcards - Gil Schmidtmann Collection

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Postcards Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 200.00 USD
CA - Los Angeles County Los Angeles,Ocean Park Fire 1912, Postcards - Gil Schmidtmann Collection
Session D is a Mail-Bid Only Auction. Absentee bids will be accepted only. No live bidding will be allowed. All winners will be contacted after the auction. BIDDING ENDS MONDAY JUNE 27 AT 5PM PACIFIC TIME!!!
Eleven photographed black and white postcards of the Ocean Park disaster in 1912. One postcard shows how the “million dollar pier” looked before the fire, the remainder of the postcards show nine different scenes after the fire. All the postcards measure 5.5 x 3.5”. Fire broke out on Fraser's Million Dollar Pier in Ocean Park on September 3, 1912, only fifteen months after it was built. Diners first noticed smoke in the Casino restaurant as flames from the kitchen erupted through the roof. The fire had started in the Japanese servant's quarters located in its basement. Someone had carelessly tossed a smoldering cigarette in some bedding.

A strong late afternoon breeze fanned the flames. Sparks leapt two hundred feet high and fell like a fiery bath over the flimsy painted canvas and light wooden grill work that adorned the pier's attractions. Within minutes cries of "Fire!" were sounded from a dozen different directions. More than a thousand visitors, a hundred couples at the Dance Hall alone, were still on the pier and heading for the two main exits when the Skating Rink across from the Casino caught fire and blocked one of the exits. The fire totally destroyed the pier, all the amusements and five square blocks of the business district. In all 225 structures burned, two people died, several were missing, 75 people were injured and 800 people were homeless. The loss was set at $2,000,000 with little of it insured [http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/fire.htm].