Today in Fire History 10/21

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On 10/21/1900 “shortly after midnight, a fire broke out in the 4-story, wood frame, A. B. Hinman packing plant on Vandalia Street 200 feet north of University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A southwesterly wind fanned the flames as the fire quickly extended to an adjacent icehouse and a single-story building owned by the Northwest Lime Company. By 2:00 a.m., the fire had spread to a large 3-story brick warehouse owned by the McCormick Harvester Company full of packing crates and heavy machinery. Fire crews worked hard to establish water supplies from the few available hydrants in the area. Long hose lays were required. Extra companies were summoned. Around 2:45 a.m., the top floor of the McCormick warehouse collapsed, causing the south wall of the building to topple outward. Eight firefighters were buried under the debris, including heavy farm machinery mixed with bricks and beams. It took 9 hours to dig out the buried firefighters. Three escaped without serious injuries, four died on the scene, and one died from his injuries 3 days later.”

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On 10/21/1904 a Denver, Colorado firefighter “of Hook & Ladder 1, became the fourth Denver firefighter to die as a result of the nitric acid spill and fire at The Denver Post etching room on September 20th.”

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On 10/21/1929 two firefighters from Worcester, Massachusetts “died after they were crushed by a falling brick wall.”

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On 10/21/1939 a Bronx, New York (FDNY) firefighter died of critical burns he sustained on October 19 when he was caught in a flashover at a single-alarm fire. “He suffered second-degree burns to his hands and face while operating at 1330 Brook Avenue. This was the third fire in the Bronx at the same time just before midnight. The fire started in one of the third-floor apartments when a woman was using benzene to clean beds and lit a match to see if her work had been effective. Several other apartments received some damage and left twenty-four families homeless. When first brought into the hospital his injuries were not thought to be serious until the next day. He died from the effects of smoke poisoning and the burns he received.”

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On 10/21/1949 a California Department of Forestry firefighter “died from the injuries he sustained while operating at a fire.”

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On 10/21/1964 a San Francisco, California firefighter “was fatally injured while operating at the Morris Plan Building, at Market Street.”

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On 10/21/1972 a Lawrence, Massachusetts firefighter “died after suffering the effects of smoke inhalation while operating at an arson fire in a three-story tenement on French Street, Methuen.”

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On 10/21/1947 the Care-of-Aged facility fire killed twenty-eight in Hof, Germany.

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On 10/21/1891 the Childress, Texas County Courthouse was destroyed by fire.

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On 10/21/1883 in Brooklyn, New York a 2:30 p.m. 20-horse power upright lumber mill boiler explosion on Nevins Street, between Baltic and Butler Streets killed one man. “It is supposed that he found the water in the boiler quite low and that he turned on cold water.”

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On 10/21/1833 Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite was born in Stockholm, Sweden. “Dynamite is an explosive based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth (kieselguhr) as an adsorbent. It was invented by Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in 1866 in Krümmel (Germany) and patented in 1867.” “When he died in 1896, Alfred Nobel left behind a nine-million-dollar endowment fund. The Nobel Prize is awarded yearly to people whose work helps humanity.”

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On 10/21/1861 the only sitting U.S. member of Congress to be killed in battle died at Ball’s Bluff, Loudoun County, Virginia.? Senator Edward Dickinson Baker, of Oregon and friend of President Abraham Lincoln, became a Colonel leading the California Regiment assigned to Brig. Gen. Stone’s division, stationed along the Potomac River. Stone ordered Baker to Ball’s Bluff to take command of the reconnaissance. When Baker learned of a skirmish, he immediately sent in all his available men and crossed to Ball’s Bluff. At about 4:00 p.m., he was struck simultaneously in his heart and brain by four bullets and died instantly.

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On 10/21/1805 the Battle of Trafalgar occurred off the coast of Spain, the British defeated the French and Spanish fleet; one of the most decisive naval battles in history, the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon Bonaparte's combined French and Spanish fleet; the British dominated the five-hour fight, destroying 19 enemy ships. No British ships were lost, but 1,500 British seamen were killed or wounded

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On 10/21/1797 the U.S. Navy frigate, the USS Constitution, was launched in Boston Harbor