In the early frigid hours of Jan 16, 1918, Mary O’Reilly awoke to the distant sounds of shouts from the street and the smell of smoke. She ran down to the second floor exit door and burned her hand on the doorknob. When she pushed on the door she was met with flames and heavy smoke. Her hair caught on fire as the flames burst toward her.

Mary quickly extinguished her hair and ran to the third floor bedrooms to wake her sister Susan O’Reilly and their young maid, Mary Alantosh. The smoke followed her into their apartment above the E. O’Reilly Department Store and soon overcame the O’Reilly sisters, causing them both to fall unconscious. The servant, Mary Alantosh, threw open the window and prepared to jump from the three-story ledge.

At 4:45 a.m., Floyd Heffner, on his way home from working a shift at the Bethlehem Steel Company saw a fire through the window of the first floor of the O’Reilly department store, located at 421-425 East Third St., on the north side of Third, between Polk and Fillmore streets. He ran to the Scott House bar and hotel, at Third and Fillmore streets, to alert manager Michael Watters of the fire.

Watters rang Sergeant Lawrence Kelly of the police who in turn called the Protection and Liberty Fire Houses of South Bethlehem as well as Fire Chief Albert E. “Bertie” Anderson. When the fire companies arrived, they unrolled their hoses only to find the closest water plug to the blaze, located at Third and Polk Streets, was frozen solid. They were forced to carry the hoses a block away to the plug at Third and Fillmore.

At the same time, people in the street spotted the distraught Mary Alantosh standing on the ledge of the third story window. Patrolman Dennis J. Gallagher yelled to her not to jump as he was coming to her. He made a first attempt up the stairs but was driven back by the smoke. He asked for a gas mask and assistance.

Protection fireman Patrick Mahoney volunteered to enter the building with him. Gallagher threw his weight against the door to the women’s quarters to force it open. He picked up one O’Reilly sister in his arms and secured the Mary Alantosh to his back and carried them both out of the building to safety. Mahoney followed with the other O’Reilly sister.

Fire and police officials administered to the terrified women in Herman Schermer’s notion store at 419 East Third St., next door to O’Reilly’s. The women were mere minutes from succumbing to the smoke. When they recovered, the women were transported to brother Michael O’Reilly’s home at the top of Fiot Avenue.

Herman and Regina Schermer and their five children lived above their notions store. Their building did not burn but it suffered from water damage. A wall between O’Reilly’s and Schermer’s fell directly on Mr. and Mrs. Schermer’s bed. Fortunately the Schermers were out of their apartment at the time. Liberty fireman D. L. Shulman leapt away just in time to avoid the falling bricks.

The Schermers offered a steady stream of hot coffee for anyone working to put out the fire. Third Street was a thriving business district, packed full of retail stores, apartments and houses. A typical use of each building was to locate the retail business on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors. Much was at stake if a fire spread to the surrounding buildings.

Thousands of sightseers lined the south side of Third Street to watch the blaze. Bethlehem Steel workers stood with the crowd as they went back and forth to work. O’Reilly’s was a staple of the Third Street shopping district and its loss was a disaster. Soon the north side Central and Lehigh fire companies along with the Bethlehem Steel Fire Department joined the south side firefighters. Dozens of hoses, attached to fire plugs blocks away were trained on O’Reilly’s.

Mayor Archibald Johnston, who just a week before was inaugurated as mayor of the brand new consolidated Bethlehem, arrived soon after the fire stations were called. He stood with the fire fighters and police throughout the event. Johnston arranged for a supply of dry gloves and rubber boots for the men and later praised the fire fighters.

“These men are just as heroic as the men who go to war,” he said.

At the time, World War I was quickly draining the city of its strong, young men making firefighting all the more difficult. When the fire was out, Johnston shook the hands of every fire fighter and policeman present. By that time, each man was covered from head to toe with ice from the hose spray in the bitterly cold temperatures.

The O’Reilly Department Store began in 1876 as a small grocery store at the 421 Third St. location. Michael and Elizabeth (Hopper) O’ Reilly enlarged the business over the years with the help of their 10 children. At the time of the fire, Michael Jr. was the manager with the help of at least five of his siblings.

The fire, which began in the basement, caused a loss of $150,000 for damages to the building and stock ($4,810,000 today). The fire’s cause was never determined, but the family believed it was the result of “an electrical defect.” The O’Reillys considered the building lost and concentrated on their second business location at Third and New streets.