Cape Cod History

1942: Huge fire at Camp Edwards destroys 125 vehicles

Wartime blaze at garage on Camp Edwards destroys 125 vehicles

Today's Mass. Military Reservation in the Upper Cape looked like this during World War II.

Blaze occurred two months after the World War II began

On this day in 1942, as reported by the long gone International News Service -

"One hundred and twenty-five vehicles, including 40 new cars, with their tires and tubes too, were destroyed today in a fire that swept the largest garage on Cape Cod."

No injuries were reported in the fire of uncertain origin, which caused an estimated $250,000 in damages.

The history of Massachusetts National Guard training on Upper Cape Cod extends back to 1908, when soldiers conducted weekend and annual training in the woods to the south and west of present-day MMR. This photo is from about 1942.

"Soldiers from Camp Edwards saved six automobiles by pushing them through a plate glass window," the INS reported.

The blaze occurred two months after the US entry into World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and seven years after construction began of the military base on the Upper Cape.

About Camp Edwards

From 1935, when Gov. James Michael Curley signed a bill to appropriate funding for land and to establish a Military Reservation Commission, to 1940, the state and federal governments constructed 63 buildings and two 500-foot turf runways at the base.

In 1938, Curley's successor, Gov. Charles Hurley, dedicated Camp Edwards, the Army's portion of the MMR. The camp was named after Major General Clarence Edwards, former commander of the 26th Yankee Division. Otis Field at the base was named after 1st Lt. Frank J. Otis, a Yankee Division pilot killed on a cross-country training flight.

The 1940 equivalent of Obama's Stimulus Plan "Peak of construction occurred in November 1940 with 18,343 employees working three shifts, a weekly payroll in excess of $1 million, and completion of 30 buildings a day."

The initial construction effort "represented the largest WPA (Works Project Administration) project in the state, employing more than 600 workers," according to a website on the history of the MMR. "Peak of construction occurred in November 1940 with 18,343 employees working three shifts, a weekly payroll in excess of $1 million, and completion of 30 buildings a day."

In 1941, the 101st Observation Squadron of the Massachusetts National Guard, stationed at Jeffries Field in East Boston (known today as Logan International Airport), was inducted into federal service and moved to Otis Field. The airfield's first concrete runways were built in 1942, the same year as the devastating fire at the base garage. The runways were widened and lengthened the following year in response to the use of larger and more powerful military aircraft.