It felt like winter everywhere except for Summer Street,
There the flames were all anybody anywhere could see
And from the top of Beacon Hill we watched the fire spill over Water Street
It started quickly, the flames in a shootout on a city street,
Jumping roof to roof like they were running from a robbery
And everywhere you turned, another building burned, now it's all debris
And everybody knows where they were the night the fire came
Everybody found who they were the night the fire came and swallowed me whole
With our backs on Broad Street, the captain told us all we had to hold the line,
But the horses were laid up in bed, and the engines couldn't make the climb
So the word spread down the wire, the flames were getting higher here in Damrell's Fire
And everybody knows where they were the night the fire came,
Everybody found who they were the night the fire came and swallowed me whole