five o'clock in the morning
It was the seventh hour of steady battle , and many of them were almost overcome by exhaustion ; but those who faltered found their places taken by others , and the unequal struggle went on . At this point Smith , with his fire-line badge pinned to his coat in case of challenge , was turning his hand to anything which seemed to need the doing . A solid wall of fireproofs along Arch Street had held the fire from spreading eastward there , but as Franklin Street was passed in the southward sweep , the eastward urging was not wholly to be denied . At five o'clock in the morning the four faces of Winthrop Square were all involved , and the buildings along Devonshire Street had begun to yield . Over at Washington and Tremont Streets the fire had now spread as far south as Bedford -- and the wind was still blowing steadily . Gradually , for the last half hour , the velvet blackness of the upper sky had been fading ; gradually the sparks , as they mounted unceasingly , had begun to seem less luminous ; and the waves of smoke which had been rising all night into the upper air became for the first time a little dark against the sky . All night had this smoke been flung up from the burning city , and always had it seemed white or reddish or dirty brown , as it rose ; all night had the air hung close in its smoky pall , seeming to shut in the sad theater wherein this drama was being played ; all night had the fire been torch and lantern and moon and stars to those who faced the fire .