Today in Fire History 11/6
On 11/6/1896 the National Fire Protection Association was founded in Boston, Massachusetts with the mission "to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education."
?
On 11/6/2011 a fire just before midnight “at Mount Carmel Adult Residential Facility in a single-family residence converted to an assisted living facility with six licensed beds left five dead and the sixth resident in critical condition in Marina, Monterey County, California, a small town near Monterey about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco. The fire started as they slept; flames damaged almost half of the facility and partially destroyed the roof of the house on the 3200 block of Seaside Court. Two caregivers at the home and three police officers suffered smoke inhalation. All were treated at a hospital and released.”
?
On 11/6/1887 in Hurley, Wisconsin a theater fire killed ten and extended to four buildings. “The victims were all connected with the vaudeville theater and occupied sleeping rooms on the third floor of the Klondike Theater. The fire started on the stage and in a few minutes spread to the entire structure cutting off the escape of the occupants.? The third story was used as sleeping quarters and the fire spread so rapidly as to cut off the escape of the occupants. The theater building was quickly consumed and spread to adjoining structures. The Ironwood fire department was called to the assistance of the Hurley firefighters and only by the hardest work was the town saved from being wiped out. The Klondike Theater burned once before in July 1887, when 11 women lost their lives.”
?
On 11/6/1936 a Greeley, Colorado firefighter “died of the injuries he sustained after a fuel tank exploded as he was fighting a fire on a transport truck.”
?
On 11/6/1939 a Los Angeles, California firefighter was crushed to death and three others were injured at the five-story Gray Building fire at 3rd and Broadway. Twenty of the 150 workers, most of them women, employed in the building, were trapped when a fire escape ladder on the 2nd floor stuck, some of the hysterical women were about to jump when firefighters reached them with a truck ladder.
?
On 11/6/1949 a Boston, Massachusetts firefighter “suffered the effects of smoke inhalation on October 24, 1949, while operating at a fire. He later succumbed to his injuries on November 6, 1949.”
?
On 11/6/1981 a Simsbury, Connecticut firefighter “died after suffering a heart attack while operating at a fire at the Knights of Columbus Hall.”
?
On 11/6/1998 a Goldsboro, North Carolina firefighter and a Dudley, North Carolina firefighter “were killed as they fought a fire in an automobile salvage yard storage building. Firefighters believed that they had found the seat of the fire and were applying water when a rapid change in conditions occurred. One firefighter ran out of air while trying to escape. The second firefighter entered the structure to search for the first. He too ran out of air, became disoriented, and failed to exit the building. The second firefighter was wearing a personal alert safety system (PASS) device, but it was not activated. The first firefighter was not equipped with a PASS device. The cause of death for the first firefighter was listed as carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation and the cause of death for the second firefighter was listed as carbon monoxide poisoning.”
?
On 11/6/1977 the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia gave way; thirty-nine were killed in the resulting flood. “Ninety miles north of Atlanta, the Toccoa (Cherokee for "beautiful") Falls Dam was constructed of earth across a canyon in 1887, creating a 55-acre lake 180 feet above the Toccoa Creek.” “November 5, a volunteer firefighter inspected the dam and found everything in order. However, just hours afterward, in the early morning of November 6, the dam suddenly gave way. Water thundered down the canyon and creek, approaching speeds of 120 miles per hour.”
?
On 11/6/1895 in Detroit, Michigan the Detroit Journal Building boiler explosion killed twelve and caused a partial building collapse. “A section of the building forty feet wide collapsed, burying scores of people in the ruins.” “The cause of the explosion was low water.”
?
On 11/6/1922 the Reilly Shaft Number 1 a mine gas explosion killed seventy-eight near Spangler, Pennsylvania. “The dead are nearly all young men between the ages of 18 and 25 years, and are largely Americans or English speaking.”
?
On 11/6/1910 two natural gas explosions within a few minutes of each other in a mine killed twelve workers shortly before 7:00 a.m. in Black Diamond, Washington “Soon after the explosion, the mine began to cave in, indicating that all the supports had been blown out and the tunnels wrecked.”
?
On 11/6/1891 a Troy, Alabama fire destroyed two cotton warehouses and over 800 bales of cotton.
?
On 11/6/1891 a Greenville, Texas saloon and a barn were destroyed by two separate fires.
?
On 11/6/1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President and in 1861 Jefferson Davis was elected President of the CSA.