“Four Days of Fury,” a documentary film on New Hampshire’s largest forest fire, will be shown at the Putnam Theater, Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College, tonight, April 28, at 7 p.m.
After the Hurricane of 1938, local forests were littered with dense tangles of storm-toppled trees. People everywhere were setting up portable saw mills to salvage the downed and tinder-dry wood. On an unusually hot afternoon in April 1941, one of those mills sparked, igniting a great conflagration. Over the next three days, flames roared across 24,000 acres in four towns — burning 48 percent of Marlow and 42 percent of Stoddard in what would become the largest forest fire in New Hampshire’s history.
The film, being shown for the 75th anniversary of the fire, features the recollections of people who experienced it firsthand.
Filmmaker and historian Tracy Messer will introduce the film, and be on hand for questions afterward along with fire experts.
The screening and discussion are free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Monadnock Conservancy, Historical Society of Cheshire County, and Harris Center for Conservation Education.