Federal Transient Bureau Fire

Q-6-44

The deadliest fire in Lynchburg history occurred here at a Federal Transient Bureau shelter on 24 March 1934. The Bureau, opened by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration as part of the New Deal, housed out-of-work men passing through town during the Great Depression. The two-story building was overcrowded when an early morning kitchen fire spread rapidly and claimed the lives of at least 19 inhabitants; about 70 others were injured. The federal government returned many bodies to their families, but seven were buried locally in the Old City Cemetery. National attention was focused on Lynchburg, and federal guidelines for homeless shelters were improved as a result of this disaster.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Jeffrey S. Cole, “Lynchburg’s New Deal Tragedy: The Transient Bureau Fire of 1934,” Lynch’s Ferry (Spring/Summer 2008), 16-21. Jeffrey S. Cole, “‘Hopeful People on the Move’: The Urban South and the Transient Problem During the Great Depression,” The New Deal and Beyond: Social Welfare in the South since 1930, ed. Elna C. Green (University of Georgia Press, 2003). Robert E. Lipscomb, Lynchburg Fire Department: A History, 1883-2000 (2000). Lynchburg News, 25, 27 March 1934. Washington Post, 25, 28 March, 12 April, 13 May. Sanborn Map of Lynchburg Log Records from Lynchburg Fire Department Ted Delaney, “Calamities and Catastrophes Tour,” Old City Cemetery (2002).