VIDEO: Butte firefighters, police, and members of a local history group braved the bitter cold on Monday afternoon to remember the lives lost in a devastating explosion and fire that took place almost 130 years ago in the Mining City’s warehouse district.
The Kenyon-Connell Warehouse fire of 1895 took the lives of all but two Butte firefighters when illegal dynamite exploded. Also lost to the fire were dozens of citizens, one police officer, horses, and a loyal dog.
While it was immediately mourned by the community at the time, the event became lost to history until a group of amateur historians and members of the Butte-Silver Bow Archives staff began work on a memorial several years ago. About 100 people gathered on Jan. 15 outside of the Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department to celebrate the completion of the memorial that features the work of Montana artist Jim Dolan.