Istvánfi Endre writes about this fire:
"...on a dry autumn day, right during a great storm, a fire broke out in a house in the middle of Kumanac Street (at the corner of today's Lole Ribara and Brigadira Ristića streets - LM). The wind, swirling, scattered embers across the surrounding yards and buildings. A sea of flames spread from one street to another. Smoke billowed everywhere. With the help of firefighters from Stari Bečej, the fire was extinguished by the end of the day. The evening saw about three hundred families standing before the ruins and ashes of their homes. A local and state effort was launched to collect donations for the families whose property was destroyed in this fire. Even the King himself joined the effort, contributing 2,000 forints."
In addition to this, in my book *Novi Bečej and Vranjevo Through History*, I also presented information found by Branislav "Bata" Kiselički in his grandfather's notebook, which states: "On September 24, 1886, one hundred and six numbered properties burned down."
In the meantime, I came across information about this fire published in the Kikinda newspaper *Sadašnjost* on September 21, 1886, which states that the fire broke out on September 10 at 2 p.m. The spread of the fire was significantly aided by the wind, which changed direction during the fire, thereby changing the direction of the flames.
"Firefighting units from Veliki Bečkerek, which arrived by a special train, from Stari Bečej, Vranjevo, Melenci, Beodra, and Karlovo participated in extinguishing the fire. They used everything possible, but in the end, 150 homes, almost all Serbian, burned to the ground. All the food, furniture, and drinks that the tireless farmers had prepared with great effort for survival, all were lost..."
I consider the information published in *Sadašnjost* to be the most credible since it was recorded ten days after the fire broke out, while the other two accounts were recorded from memory. *Sadašnjost* was a newspaper that was published weekly, so it took ten days for the news of the fire in Novi Bečej to be published."
Comments