In the late 1890s, the town of Como, Colorado was almost wiped off the map by a fire which started somewhere near the hotel or the depot. Before the day was out, several businesses (including the hotel and the depot) were destroyed, as well as many homes.
Many of the homes—as in most other mining towns—were just tents, thrown up to house as many miners as cheaply and conveniently (if you consider freezing to death in a tent convenient) as possible, and these of course burned quickly. Many “more substantial” edifices—such as the above mentioned hotel and the post office—were built entirely out of wood went up like matchsticks.
Like most such fires, there were heroes. Men—and in many cases women—fought hour after hour to keep the fire from spreading and there were many heroes that day whose names are not remembered anymore. In my novel “Overstreet”, John Overstreet is one of those local men who fight the fire.