Today in Jacksonville History: June 8, 1941

Sudden and dramatic fire destroyed two of three Clyde-Mallory terminals on the downtown riverfront, mobilizing firefighters and spreading a pre-war panic of sabotage through Jacksonville.

Thick black smoke billowed throughout the morning, drawing thousands into the streets. Police held spectators blocks away as firemen fought the blaze.

Every firefighting unit from miles around rushed to the scene. Screaming ambulances for funeral homes rushed men by the score to hospitals.

Fifteen persons were admitted to St. Vincent's and St. Luke's with heat prostration, cuts and bruises -- 10 firemen, three soldiers and two sailors.

Two hundred others were treated at the scene, in a field hospital from Camp Blanding and a first-aid station set up by Key-McCabe funeral home.

The alarm was sounded by telephone soon after 9 a.m. Fire broke dramatically from under a pier at the foot of Market Street. Three-hundred Clyde-Mallory workers fled for their lives. The passenger liner Seminole, which arrived at 7, fled desperately to the river channel, scorched in its flight by the explosive incineration.

Big Jim, the municipal whistle, frantically sounded a general alarm. Calls went out to all volunteers, from anywhere. Rumors spread wildly in the tinder of approaching war.

Two of the three terminals smoldered, destroyed by day's end. Damage neared $1 million. The cause remained undetermined but triggered an unprecedented civil defense mobilization that accelerated in the weeks to come and lasted throughout the imminent war.

"I don't know what we would have done without the splendid cooperation of soldiers, sailors, Coast Guardsmen, naval reservists, customs officers, Boy Scouts, the Neptune Beach fire department and all other volunteers," Mayor George Blume said.

"Jacksonville was thrust sharply into the limelight as the latest scene of apparent sabotage that is sweeping the country," wrote S.E. Lorimier of The Florida Times-Union.  Also on June 8, 1941:

The Civil Defense Council called for a volunteer fire brigade of men 21 to 35 physically fit to do the job. Second Assistant Fire Chief J.B. Chancey cited the threat of multiple arsons dividing the firefighting force.

Germany's complete misunderstanding of the stubborn British will to win would prove the undoing of Nazi-controlled nations, Donald Hall, British representative of New York-based Inter-Allied Committee, told the Times-Union.

Bill Foley was a Times-Union reporter, editor and columnist for more than 40 years. He’s best known for his quirky columns about Jacksonville and Northeast Florida’s history. He wrote this series of Millennium Moments columns in 1999 leading up to the year 2000. Foley died in 2001 at age 62.