The morning of Sept. 29, 1947 was a busy and smoky one in downtown Nashua, especially at Main and Park streets, where this block of three businesses – the Park Theater, Nashua Hardware and Plumbing Supply, and Berg's shoe store – went up in flames. In an era before air tanks were part of a firefighter's gear, nearly two dozen men were taken to hospitals after being overcome with smoke. The first alarm was turned in just before 7 a.m., and a general alarm soon followed, not only because of the heavy fire and smoke throughout, but the fact that the Bargain Outlet store next door and tenements on the Park Street side were so close, creating major exposure problems for crews. Spectators came by the hundreds to watch crews battle the blaze, which took some seven hours to bring under control. Several men sustained injuries, mostly minor in nature, four of whom spent the night at the hospital for observation. Today, a one-story building, housing the Giant of Siam and Enterprise Bank, is in that spot.

The morning of Sept. 29, 1947 was a busy and smoky one in downtown Nashua, especially at Main and Park streets, where this block of three businesses – the Park Theater, Nashua Hardware and Plumbing Supply, and Berg’s shoe store – went up in flames. In an era before air tanks were part of a firefighter’s gear, nearly two dozen men were taken to hospitals after being overcome with smoke. The first alarm was turned in just before 7 a.m., and a general alarm soon followed, not only because of the heavy fire and smoke throughout, but the fact that the Bargain Outlet store next door and tenements on the Park Street side were so close, creating major exposure problems for crews. Spectators came by the hundreds to watch crews battle the blaze, which took some seven hours to bring under control. Several men sustained injuries, mostly minor in nature, four of whom spent the night at the hospital for observation. Today, a one-story building, housing the Giant of Siam and Enterprise Bank, is in that spot.

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