In 1915, the entire town of Hopewell burned to the ground

In 1915, the small hamlet of Hopewell became one of Virginia’s early 20th century boomtowns with the establishment of a DuPont Company dynamite and gunpowder factory. And in less than a year, nearly the entire town had burned to the ground.

The fire started on the afternoon of Dec. 9, 1915, around 1:45 p.m., when an oil stove in a downtown Greek restaurant was accidentally turned over. Initial efforts to put out the fire failed, and the oil from the stove spread the flame throughout the building, eventually reaching outside and being picked up by the breeze.

Available firefighting measures proved inadequate, and the flames rapidly swept over the city upon 20-mile-an-hour winds.

Yet while the fire’s devastation was swift, so was the response.

“Within one hour and forty-five minutes afte