“The utmost distress has been experienced by the miserable inhabitants,” the newspaper wrote four days after the fire, noting that the remaining houses could scarcely shelter the displaced. “Several of the wealthier residents have suffered losses nearly to their total ruin, particularly Mr. Norris whose dwelling house, office and malthouse containing a considerable quantity of grain were destroyed. This dreadful calamity … has overwhelmed this ill-fated town with inconceivable distress and inconvenience.”

Relief came nearly two weeks later, when Charles William Bury, the town’s young landlord, arrived to distribute 550 pounds to those affected—an act the Dublin Evening Post praised as one of “charity and munificence.”

In a fitting symbol of recovery, the Tullamore coat of arms bears a phoenix—the mythological bird of fire and rebirth.