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Comparison photos of Downtown DuBois


Pompeii

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These were both POTD's this week. The pics are just about the same viewing angle. 

It shows you that things really haven't changed over the years.

Thanks to former resident Stephen King for the most current photo.

 

Tuesday's POTD:

91013.jpg

 

 

Today's POTD

91313.jpg

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The downtown area of DuBois had to contend with a number of fires through the years since WWII, though it would be nice to have many of those buildings back.

I don't remember fires in the stores above the light at Jared, other than the one just a few years back in that big apartment building and the one above the Dollar Store. I'm talking about the ones right below the Dollar Store.

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The downtown area of DuBois had to contend with a number of fires through the years since WWII, though it would be nice to have many of those buildings back.

Those old buildings were firetraps. Built directly up against each other, all wood construction, bad electrical wiring, bad heating systems, oiled wood floors, tar paper roofs, just waiting for an ignition source, no fire sprinkler systems,....It was a matter of sooner or later..

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Those old buildings were firetraps. Built directly up against each other, all wood construction, bad electrical wiring, bad heating systems, oiled wood floors, tar paper roofs, just waiting for an ignition source, no fire sprinkler systems,....It was a matter of sooner or later..

After the big fire, they were no longer all wood construction.

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I don't remember fires in the stores above the light at Jared, other than the one just a few years back in that big apartment building and the one above the Dollar Store. I'm talking about the ones right below the Dollar Store.

Before I lived in DuBois, though my statement was more a general one, than pointing at any specific area.  I know of a large fire alongside the Dollar Store.  After it, from what I was told, Eddie Levine built his clothing store.  There was a large fire across from Brady/along side the State Farm agency.

 

Many of the buildings that burned that I remember (and what Fox was referring to) were more of brick facades.  You can still see some "ghosts" of firewalls, though there is no way to stop a fire that burns through a wooden roof and leaps to the next.  IIRC DuBois also had several firefighters lose their lives fighting these blazes.

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Before I lived in DuBois, though my statement was more a general one, than pointing at any specific area.  I know of a large fire alongside the Dollar Store.  After it, from what I was told, Eddie Levine built his clothing store.  There was a large fire across from Brady/along side the State Farm agency.

 

Many of the buildings that burned that I remember (and what Fox was referring to) were more of brick facades.  You can still see some "ghosts" of firewalls, though there is no way to stop a fire that burns through a wooden roof and leaps to the next.  IIRC DuBois also had several firefighters lose their lives fighting these blazes.

Most of the fires were caused from human activity like smoking.

 

But that poses an interesting question and I don't know the answer. Maybe a fireman can answer. After the big fire, how were the buildings constructed? Do they have firestops?

 

I don't about the downtown buildings but I know some of the older houses in DuBois are built with firestops.

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Most of them are rebuit as one story modern buildings but then most of them fit in with the general theme. They have heavy firewalls between them and that seems to have stopped most of the more recent downtown fires from spreading. There have been a lot over the years. That's part of why the Historic District was formed.

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