Today in Fire History 11/8

On 11/8/1879 the first mechanical water tower in New York, New York was recorded. John Logan and Abner Greenleaf developed a 50-foot mast water tower consisting of pipe sections raised manually by cranks capable of delivering a large-capacity elevated stream.

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On 11/7/1882 the Halifax, ?Nova Scotia “Poor House” fire killed thirty-one around midnight while the occupants were sleeping. The fire started in the basement of the bake-house, in the immense poor asylum building, and spread to the base of the long air shaft and elevator, reaching the top of the main building. “About twelve o'clock last night, while all the hands were sleeping, a fire broke out in the bakehouse, in the basement of the immense poor asylum building. Exactly how it originated is not very clear, but the smoke of the smoldering wood spread through the building and caused the utmost terror among the four or five thousand inmates of the institution. There was no immediate danger, so the officials of the asylum did not take steps to remove the inmates. An alarm was sounded, and the stroke of the bell had scarcely commenced, when the reels were run out of the engine houses, as one or two men happened to be about. In the west wing, the old women and children were seen at the windows crying to be let out. A sturdy axeman dashed at the door leading from this wing into the yard and knocked it in. The stairways were crowded and out came the procession of women, nursing infants, old gray-headed grandmas, and feeble old men. Then it became known that they in the upper wards of that wing were helpless. Some of the firefighters, and afterward others who were among the early arrivals, hastened up and with willing hands were soon getting the blind, halt, and lame down the winding stairs. In the meantime the flames in the basement which the superintendent, engineer, and officials were trying to keep under, spread to the base of the long air shaft, or elevator, reaching the top of the main building. The draft here swept the flames upwards with tremendous force, and in a few seconds, the heaviest part of the conflagration was at the top of the main building. The story just under the caves in this building was used as a hospital, and in it were about seventy patients all perfectly helpless; the fire was now fiercely burning right in the hospital, and above it, the heat was so intense, that the lead poured down the roof in streams of brilliant fire, and the slate flew everywhere in the deadly shower, rendering any near approach to the building almost certain death. Notwithstanding this, hundreds were standing outside who would willingly have entered the building if they could have found their way through the place. Indeed, several did go in, without guidance, but could do nothing in the immense building, and had to return. An attempt was made to raise the ladders to the windows, but the ladders were too short and after a firefighter was knocked down by a falling brick, and it was seen the ladders would be swept away in a few minutes, the attempt ceased. The fire burned through the roof and the scene was one never to be forgotten. Far above the roar of the flames and the crack of bursting slates, were heard the cries of the wretched patients in the hospital, who were roasting to death. Most of them could not leave their beds, and were, perhaps, stifled by the smoke before the cruel flames reached them, but others were seen to dash themselves against the windows and cling to the sash till their strength was exhausted or their hands burned off and they fell back into the seething caldron of flames. A woman was seen dragging herself to the corner of the window and forcing her body half out till she could breathe cool air, remained in that position until her head burned off. It is known there were over seventy patients in the hospital, and as far as could be ascertained only six were carried out before the flames cut off all further approach to the place. A medical man, who is in a position to know, estimated the loss not less than fifty, and these were all patients in the hospital. The poor old people and little children rescued from other parts of the building were huddled together in a barn some little distance away, where they were packed around with straw and blankets to keep them comfortable till morning. The building is still burning fiercely, and there is no doubt it will be totally destroyed. It is insured.”

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On 11/8/1865 a Manhattan, New York firefighter “died as a result of inhaling coal gas fumes at a fire on October 29th.”

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On 11/8/1917 a Louisville, Kentucky firefighter died after a “fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Willard Hotel early in the morning of November 7, 1917. Firefighters used life nets and ladders to rescue a number of the 200 registered guests. During a daring rescue attempt, a firefighter was severely burned, after his coat ignited, as he charged through the flames on the fifth floor to reach a man that was trapped by fire. He died the next day.

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On 11/8/1953 a Milwaukee, Wisconsin firefighter “died of smoke asphyxiated at a 4-alarm fire, 2627-31 W. State Street.

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On 11/8/2015 in Hyattsville, Maryland a church van carrying adults and children collided with a pickup truck and burst into flames in an accident that claimed four lives and left fourteen others badly injured.

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On 11/8/2010 five children (ages 15, 13, 12, 8, and 6) died and an adult was severely injured in a Citra, (Marion County) Florida in a 1,400-square-foot wooden house fire at 1760 N.E. 182nd Place.

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On 11/8/1928 an explosion killed fourteen at the Preble Box Toe Company in Lynn, Massachusetts.

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On 11/8/1902 the industrial park conflagration destroyed three city blocks along the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey comprising about a dozen frame buildings located at Kaighn's Point in the southern section of the city. The Nonpareil Cork Manufacturing Company, the Nonpareil Cloth Works, the Camden Manufacturing Company (manufacturers of chemicals), the McAndrews & Forbes Liquor Manufacturers, and the large warehouse of Mellor-Rittenhouse Licorice Works were destroyed. The British steamer Conway (loaded with licorice root from India) moored to McAndrews & Forbes’ wharf was saved from destruction by the Philadelphia fireboat Ashbridge. “The origin of the fire is unknown.”

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On 11/8/1891 the Susquehanna Coal Company mine explosion in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania killed fourteen.

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On 11/8/1869 in Gardiner, Maine the Lyceum Building, used as the schoolhouse, was destroyed by fire. “The fire is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary.”

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On 11/8/1939 a bomb exploded just after Hitler had finished giving a speech, he was unharmed

On 11/8/1938 "The Night of Broken Glass" the organized destruction of Jewish businesses and homes in Munich

On 11/8/1923 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, launches the Beer Hall Putsch, in an attempt to seize control of the German government

On 11/8/1887 Doc Holliday, gunslinger, gambler, and occasional dentist, died from tuberculosis.