The great fire of Portland , Maine , sometimes known as the 1866 great fire of Portland , occurred on July 4 , 1866 — the first Independence Day after the end of the American Civil War . Five years before the Great Chicago Fire , this was the greatest fire yet seen in an American city . It started in a boat house on Commercial Street , likely caused by a firecracker or a cigar ash . The fire spread to a lumber yard and on to a sugar house , then spread across the city , eventually burning out on Munjoy Hill in the city 's east end . Two people died in the fire . Ten thousand people were made homeless and 1,800 buildings were burned to the ground . This included the federal Exchange Building by which was replaced with the custom house . Soon after the fire , poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described his old home town : " Desolation ! Desolation ! Desolation ! It reminds me of Pompeii , the ' sepult city ' . "
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
1866 great fire of Portland, Maine