Rubble smoulders the morning after Rumford's devastating Waldo Street fire, which took place on August 2, 1923. The blaze destroyed three restaurants, 12 stores, a garage, a bakery, three barber shops, the Majestic Theater, three pool halls, a 30-bed rooming house, a harness shop, sheds and storerooms, and at least 77 tenements. It cost a total of $500,000 in damages and required fire departments from four towns to extinguish.