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Headline graphic: Honolulu Responds to the Plague

Image: Burning infected houses in Chinatown. 
Click on the thumbnails below for a larger image.
 

Image: The quarantine line is drawn. Click for larger image.

The Board of Health, after a special meeting on December 12, 1899, announced the presence of the Bubonic Plague in the city, following an autopsy of the first victim.

Image: Kekaulike Street buildings scheduled to be burned on January 4, 1900. Click for larger image.

Schools were closed, and Chinatown, with its 7,000 inhabitants, was placed under quarantine.

Image: Possessions were removed from the condemned buildings and stored in the basement of Kaumakapili Church. Click for larger image.

By the end of December, thirteen people had died,

Image: Controlled burning of a building. Click for larger image.

and the Board of Health on December 31 instituted the use of fire as a means of controlling the disease.

Image: A blazing fire. Click for larger image.

The Board burned to the ground any building in which a person had contracted the plague.

Image: Another fire about to get underway. Click for larger image.

The Fire Department oversaw the fires in order to restrict the sanitizing flames to intended buildings.

petroman, link to part 2 of feature, Flames Run Riot.Part 2: Flames Run Riot
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