Peter French, Lansing, New York: My great-grandfather John Sumner Boyd was captain of the steamship Momus and senior commanding officer of the ships of the Southern Pacific Fleet. In July 1910, the Momus was sailing from New York to New Orleans when its cargo caught fire off the coast of Florida. Boyd moved the ship into shallower waters, flooded the aft compartments, submerged the stern, extinguished the fire, and saved the ship, thus averting a disaster. According to the July 28, 1910, Times-Picayune, “Every passenger among the hundred or more travelers on the Momus had only words of the highest praise for Captain Boyd.”

Deborah Nowers, Belfast, Maine: My great-grandparents Thomas and Caroline (Philpot) Nowers were living in Chelsea, Massachusetts, at the time of the Great Chelsea Fire of 1908. They fled for their lives carrying just the family Bible, silver candlesticks, and a silver cann (mug) made in England in 1743 by the shop of Hester Bateman. Their house was destroyed. The Bible and candlesticks became too heavy to carry and were left by the side of the road. But they held onto the cann, which eventually passed to me. It is one of my most treasured possessions.

Sedate Holland Kohler, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin: On May 20, 1893, a fire began in an abandoned sawmill in the booming lumber town of Saginaw, Michigan. Within hours, more than 250 homes, sawmills, and businesses were reduced to ashes. There was a single fatality: 89-year-old Robert Turner, my great-great-grandfather. I have an audio recording my father made in 1972 of my grandfather Robert Turner Holland Jr. and Robert’s sister Esther Holland Robinson discussing the fire and its tragic impact on the Holland and Turner families.

Alan Woodard Rogers, Northfield, Massachusetts: My great-grandmother Lillian (Spiller) Hurd was killed in the Grover Shoe Factory disaster in Brockton, Massachusetts, on March 20, 1905. The industrial explosion, building collapse, and fire injured 150 people and killed fifty-eight. Lillian’s body was identified by matching a photo to a scrap of the dress she wore that day. I still have that photo. Lillian’s husband, Will Vernon Hurd, was an alcoholic and unable to care for their three children. The children were sent to live with relatives.

Ed Holt, Harpswell, Maine: In February 1918, in rural Otisfield, Maine, 9-year-old Marion Brett mixed her first gingerbread and put it in the cast iron oven to bake. The ceiling over the stove began to smoke and the house caught fire. The nearest fire department was six miles away and the roads were covered with snow. Neighbors arrived by sleigh and on foot to fight the fire, but the house and barn of my grandparents Willard and Ruth (Buck) Brett burned to the ground. The family lived in the adjacent “apple house” for eighteen months while they rebuilt. When Marion died in 1996, the family served gingerbread after the funeral.