Altoona’s most disastrous fire in terms of property damage occurred Dec. 27, 1931, in the machine shops area of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s complex. The shop occupied part of a 23-acre plot, known as the Altoona Works, that extended from 11th Street to 16th Street and from Ninth to 10th avenues. PRR buildings with 671,392 square feet of floor space covered 15 of the acres and employed 5,100 men. The tight cluster of the buildings in the machine shops section near 12th Street and Ninth Avenue aided the spread of the fire that Sunday in December. The shops were closed for the Christmas vacation, and only a token force of workers was on duty. The Dec. 28, 1931, Altoona Mirror reported, “At 9:10 a.m. watchman David C. Irwin discovered the fire which had already reached a tremendous scope within the two-story building housing the Journal Box, Bolt Shop and Stores Departments.” Irwin reported the fire to the PRR’s No. 7 Fire Station at Ninth Avenue and 12th Street.