1886 — The Saltair Pavilion Fire
Salt Lake City. A popular lakeside resort burns to the waterline in 47 minutes. The cause is listed as 'unknown.'
The Saltair Pavilion, an elaborate wooden dance hall built on pilings at the south end of the Great Salt Lake, opened in 1893 and burned to the waterline on 24 April 1924. The committee includes this entry out of strict chronological order because the fire of 1886 at the original, smaller Saltair site — a structure that was never formally opened and that burned in 47 minutes under calm weather conditions — has been entirely removed from local history.
The 1886 site was located at the foot of the Oquirrhs, in what is now the parking lot of a regional shopping center. The committee has confirmed via county records that the fire’s official cause is listed as “unknown” and that no investigation was conducted.
A 1938 memoir by a Salt Lake City fireman, ██████████, describes arriving at the 1924 Saltair fire and “hearing a sound like the second coming, and seeing the flames go straight up as if drawn, not pushed, into the sky.” The fireman was retired by 1941 and died in 1967. His memoir was not published.