Firehouse Subs has signed on as title sponsor of the Jacksonville Historical Society’s Great Fire Run of 2021, a 5K and 1-mile race to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Jacksonville’s Great Fire.
Scheduled May 1, the event begins and ends at Old St. Andrew’s Church at 317 A. Philip Randolph Blvd., near VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
The 5K will start at 7:30 a.m., followed by the 1-mile run at 8:30 a.m.
To ensure safety during the pandemic, face masks will be required when not running the race, social distancing is encouraged and there will be no congregating after the race.
Registration is open at runsignup.com. Search for Great Fire Run.
Proceeds will support the Jacksonville Historical Society.
The historic disaster occurred May 3, 1901, when a spark from a kitchen fire ignited piles of drying Spanish moss at a nearby mattress factory.
Smoke from the fire could be seen as far north as Savannah, Georgia. It took city firefighters until 8:30 that night to get it under control, but not before the 146-block conflagration destroyed 2,368 buildings, left 10,000 people homeless and killed seven residents.
The blaze was halted by Hogans Creek, sparing Old St. Luke’s Hospital, now the offices for the Jacksonville Historical Society.
Founded by former firefighters and headquartered in Jacksonville, Firehouse Subs has nearly 1,200 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.