Today in Fire History 1/24

On 1/24/1975 a terrorist bombing of the historic Fraunces Tavern killed four and injured more than 50 people in Lower Manhattan, New York. “On a cold January afternoon, a Wall Street crowd was out having lunch at the Anglers Club on the second floor of Fraunces Tavern, a historic restaurant located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York. Little did they know that an organization of Puerto Rican Nationals had planned an attack on the same building. Ten pounds of explosives enclosed in a briefcase were slipped into the hallway of the building moments before the bomb detonated. The blast shattered dozens of windows, ripped the front door to splinters, tore down an interior wall, ripped away a concrete and marble slab stairway, and severely damaged the internal structure of the building. Inside the building, victims disoriented by the blast rushed towards the exit doors. A total of four men were killed in the blast, and many more were injured or maimed. The Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation, or F.A.L.N., which had executed other bomb incidents in New York in the 1970s, claimed responsibility for the bombing. While one potential suspect was later severely injured by an accidental detonation in a bomb factory in his home, no one had been prosecuted for the bombing. Fraunces Tavern is a museum and restaurant in New York City, situated at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The location played a prominent role in history before, during, and after the American Revolution. At various points in its history, Fraunces Tavern served as a headquarters for George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British, and housing for federal offices in the Early Republic. The colonnaded yellow‐brick structure was the scene on December 4, 1783, of George Washington's farewell address to the officers who had served under him in the Revolutionary War. In 1832, 1837, and 1852, the building suffered serious fires. After each fire, the owner rebuilt and added modern additions. By the end of the 19th century, the building bore little resemblance to the original structure. Two new floors and a flat roof were added. The upper floors were each divided into thirteen bedrooms and one toilet to accommodate boarders. A three‐story red‐brick Federal-style annex was added between Water and Pearl Streets in the late 1800s. In 1890, the first floor was dropped to the street level, and the exterior was remodeled with cast iron and glass storefronts. The original timbers were sold as souvenirs. On January 24, 1975, a thunderous explosion believed by investigators to have been detonated by Puerto Rican nationalists ripped through the annex to the historic tavern killing four people and injuring at least 50 others. Roaring and reverberating in the narrow canyons of the city's crowded Financial District at 1:29 p.m., the explosion shattered dozens of windows, ripped the front door to splinters, tore down an interior wall, and blasted away a concrete and marble slab stairway. The blast severely damaged the internal structure of the building. While the heavy brick walls of the building remained intact, the windows shattered by the force of the blast. The staircase was completely destroyed, and the entryway was demolished.”

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On 1/24/1908 a total of twenty-two firefighters were injured and three killed in a Baltimore, Maryland three-alarm fire in a six-story brick foundry. Heavy fire was found on the third floor. “Shortly after firefighters’ efforts began on the roaring blaze, a wall had collapsed without warning, burying up to 30 firefighters and destroying Truck 1's aerial ladder. With no regard for their safety, other firefighters struggled through the clouds of smoke and dust to dig out their trapped comrades. Several times they had to stop as flames poured out over their heads. One by one the dead and injured were removed from under tons of rubble.”

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On 1/24/2022 three Baltimore City firefighters were killed and one firefighter was seriously injured while fighting a fire in an abandoned, previously fire-damaged three-story row house in the southwest section of Baltimore, Maryland. Fire crews were called to the two-alarm fire in the 200 block of South Stricker Street just before 6:00 a.m. to find a fire burning in the dwelling with a report of children trapped in the building. Firefighters were working to put out the flames inside the structure when a partial collapse occurred. The firefighters became trapped, and a Mayday was called. The rapid intervention team (RIT) and other firefighters on the scene pushed into the still-burning structure and removed the injured firefighters. Fire investigators have classified this fire as incendiary, and a person of interest has been identified. The criminal investigation is ongoing. The fire building was a three-story Type III Ordinary construction brick and wood joist, single-family, vacant residential row house located at 205 South Stricker Street in the New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. There were three floors above ground level with approximately 1,570 square feet of living space and one floor below grade. It was located on the east side of South Stricker Street, comprised of twelve attached row houses that spanned a city block. The fire building was positioned between 203 South Stricker Street, a boarded vacant similar row house, and 207 South Stricker Street, which was occupied. The structure was originally the third building from the north side of the continuous row of similar-style buildings. The first building on the block, 201 South Stricker Street, reportedly collapsed in 1997. Built in the late 1800’s, the structure was three stories in height, approximately 29 feet. The interior of the structure was approximately 13 feet, 6 inches wide (Side Bravo to Side Delta), and 28 feet, 6 inches deep (Side Alpha to Side Charlie). There was a one-story kitchen “bump out” on Side Charlie, which was 9 feet wide by 12 feet deep. The structure had an addition attached to Side Charlie 9 feet wide by 9 feet deep.”

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On 1/24/1900 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died as a result of severe smoke inhalation sustained while operating at a two-alarm bowling alley fire on January 10, 1900.”

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On 1/24/1918 four Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighters died from a falling wall at the Brooks School -4-4-4.

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On 1/24/1934 a Buffalo, New York firefighter “died from the injuries he sustained after being buried under debris from an explosion at the William E. Kreiner & Sons Malthouse, at 467 Spring Street. Members of the Buffalo Fire Department were operating at a three-alarm fire when an explosion caused by wheat dust occurred.”

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On 1/24/1939 a Queens, New York (FDNY) died of smoke inhalation while operating at a single-alarm fire.

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On 1/24/1970 a Cottage Grove, Oregon firefighter “was killed while operating at a factory fire.”

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On 1/24/1972 a Columbus, Ohio firefighter “died as a result of the injuries he sustained while operating at a fire on January 15, 1972.”

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On 1/24/2014 a home in rural Fayette County four miles southwest of Arlington, in northeast Iowa killed five.

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On 1/24/1993 around 7:18 a.m. an incendiary fire at the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Massachusetts was stopped by one sprinkler using standard-response sprinkler heads and caused damage only to materials in the room of fire origin, smoke did spread into the corridor. The facility was equipped with a building alarm system that was interlocked with the sprinkler system and notified the fire department, magnetic hold-open devices for the corridor, and patient room doors.

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On 1/24/1957 the M. Baer Dress Company factory in New Haven, Connecticut fire killed fifteen and injured thirty-one of the 112 workers present, as the fire raced through the 70-year-old four-story loft building. A fire escape jammed and did not lower to the ground.

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On 1/24/1940 a fire destroyed the Hinton, West Virginia school building that started in the basement of the 14-room brick structure around 5:00 p.m.

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On 1/24/1918 an explosion and fire at the Allan Coal Mine in Stellarton, Nova Scotia killed eight-nine.

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On 1/24/1916 a gas explosion at the Kelker Blower Company in Buffalo, New York killed five and seriously injured four of the twenty-five employees in the long two-story frame structure. A machine shop occupied the first floor and basement, where the explosion occurred; the second floor contained a storeroom and apartments.

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On 1/24/1907 the Academy of Music was destroyed by fire at Ninth and D Streets NW. Washington, DC at 4:55 a.m.

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On 1/24/1906 a mine explosion in Indian Territory (Witteville, Oklahoma) killed sixteen.

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On 1/24/1898 the great eastern block of Spokane, Washington fire killed four.

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On 1/24/1898 five of the 150 guests died in a fire in a six-story brick lodging house at Post Street and Riverside Avenue in Spokane, Washington around 11:45 p.m.

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On 1/24/1896 the Mattawan, New York State Hospital for the Criminal Insane was destroyed by fire at 4:30 p.m. that was started in three or four places.

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On 1/24/1891 a tenement fire killed eleven and displaced six families in Jersey City, New Jersey. The fire was first observed in the rear windows on the ground floor of the old tenement building at the northeast corner of Essex and Greene Street.

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On 1/24/1882 the Hartford, Connecticut public high school was destroyed by a fire that started from a stove in the basement used to heat a large ventilating shaft in the building that was erected in 1870.

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On 1/24/1866 the Atlantic White Lead Works in Brooklyn, New York was destroyed by fire. “The facility occupying nearly the entire block bounded by Gold and Marshall Streets, Hudson Avenue, and the river that manufactured white lead, paints, and linseed oil in the brick four and five-story building. The fire started in the vicinity of the smokestack in the center of the building and spread rapidly driven by a strong wind.

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On 1/24/1839 a fire broke out at Turner & Haskill’s foundry on Haverhill Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The fire consumed about twenty buildings. The night was extremely cold, and many firefighters were severely frost-bitten.

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On 1/24/1972 a Japanese soldier was found hiding on Guam unaware that World War II had ended

On 1/24/1965 Winston Churchill died

On 1/24/1935 the 1st canned beer goes on sale in Richmond, Virginia containing “Krueger's Finest Beer.”

On 1/24/1908 the Boy Scouts movement begins in England

On 1/24/1848 gold was discovered at Sutter's Creek in California