Today in Fire History 1/29

On 1/29/1922 the Knickerbocker Theatre roof collapsed after a blizzard dumped over 20” of snow on Washington, D.C. killing 98 and injuring 133 of the 300 people watching the movie “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.” The theatre was the newest and largest movie house in the city and was built in 1917, with a flat roof. During the intermission, the roof split down the middle bringing down the balcony seating and a portion of the brick wall from the “snow load.” The architect and owner later committed suicide.

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On 1/29/1973 in Pleasantville, New Jersey, just north of Atlantic City, a nursing home fire at “Street's Rest Home” killed ten and injured six in a two-story wood-frame structure. When firefighters arrived “flames were shooting out of first-story windows.” It is believed the fire began in a linen closet. “The nursing home's fire alarm, which had been inspected recently as required by state law, did not work” in the structure that was “at least 50 years old.” “The fire department regarded the rest home as a target hazard and held numerous drills at the facility. Except for the booster tanks of apparatus, the sole water supply was a hydrant at California Avenue and New Jersey Highway 9, 3175 feet from the rest home at one end of Pleasantville on California Avenue… Firefighters with self-contained breathing apparatus made repeated efforts to enter the home but were driven back by the flames. When they finally gained entrance, they found eight bodies on the second floor and two on the first floor.

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On 1/29/1874 two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighters died “while operating at a major fire involving the three-story Olympia Theatre, at 1224-28 Market Street, they were killed when they were caught under a collapsing wall. Five other firefighters from Engine 4 were also seriously injured in the collapse.”

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On 1/29/1921 a “passing citizen activated a fire alarm call-box 16 on the corner of Queen Street West and Broad Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada after noticing smoke coming from the Sach’s Brother's rag and warehouse.?Firefighters from Station 7 arrived quickly on the scene and noticed smoke coming from the second-story windows of the three-story building, but no sign of flames. Crews stretched a hose line and took ladders down the laneway to the rear of the building, where the attack was to be mounted.?Two firefighters raised a ladder to the 2nd floor to operate a stream into the window.?At the same four firefighters raised a ladder to the third-floor window and one firefighter began to climb the ladder with an ax to break the window.?The instant the window broke, oxygen entering the building through the opening caused a backdraft of such an explosion that it blew out the entire wall.?The two firefighters were buried under bricks and debris, while three of the four firefighters were thrown some distance from their ladders.?Firefighters immediately rushed to their assistance and dug them out in seconds.?One of the firefighters was unconscious and had severe injuries.?He was placed on a hose wagon and rushed to Water Street Hospital where he died.”

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On 1/29/1933 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter died “While operating at a single-alarm fire. He had jumped clear of a falling chimney when he suffered a fatal heart attack.”

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On 1/29/1940 a Stockton, California firefighter was killed in a building collapse. Before the building collapsed, at the Japanese Hall, he along with other firefighters and policemen saved the lives of many of the occupants.

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On 1/29/1956 two Boston, Massachusetts firefighters “died after being caught in a roof collapse at the Sons of Italy Hall, 65 Trenton St East Boston. The Chief had just ordered all companies out of the building. Firefighters were attempting to get a hose out of the building. The Chief yelled, “leave the hose” just as the collapse occurred. If the order had been made a few moments later, the toll could have been much higher.” The first died in the collapse, and a second firefighter died a few days later on February 2, 1956, from injuries he received in the collapse.

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On 1/29/1967 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died while operating at the scene of an explosion at the Yugoslav Embassy at East 63rd Street.”

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On 1/29/1968 a Hartford, Connecticut firefighter “died of the injuries he sustained while operating at Box 8212.”

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On 1/29/1970 a Little Rock, Arkansas firefighter died “after a kitchen fire was extinguished in a home, he comforted the homeowner as other firefighters were cleaning up the area. He then walked out of the house to check the pump and suddenly collapsed. Fellow firefighters immediately began CPR and he was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

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On 1/29/1990 a Nichols, Oklahoma firefighter fell over balcony steps (approximately 14 feet) while advancing a hoseline in a house under construction.

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On 1/29/2018 a chemical fire “at an Elmwood Avenue business sent fourteen firefighters to the hospital according to Cranston, Rhode Island Fire Chief. Crews from across the state responded to a chemical fire that broke out shortly before 5:00 p.m. including various fire departments, hazmat crews, and the state fire marshal. The building is home to jewelry manufacturer Gem Craft Inc. Gem Craft President told Eyewitness News the fire broke out in the rear part of the building, which is rented out to ProSys Finishing Technologies, a distributor of electro-plating solutions.”??

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On 1/29/2021 four “people, including two firefighters, were killed in a house fire in the northwestern Oklahoma town of Waynoka near East Locust Street and Main Street. The firefighters were killed attempting to get the trapped civilians out and there was a collapse.” “According to Oklahoma State Fire Marshal’s Office, the fire was reported at 3:07 a.m. by the residents, who said the house was on fire and they were stuck in the bedroom. Waynoka Fire Department arrived on the scene at 3:16 a.m. and reported the fire was blocking the door. Firefighters were unable to reach the residents through the window. The roof of the home collapsed, trapping the firefighters, who were looking for family members inside. Waynoka is a town of just under 1,000 residents.”

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On 1/29/2020 eleven “people were hurt after a fire engulfed a high-rise building in Los Angeles California; over a dozen residents were rescued off the roof by helicopters. Two adults were critically injured after a massive fire tore through part of a high-rise in Brentwood, the same building which was the site of a fire more than six years ago. The blaze broke out at Barrington Plaza, a 25-story residential building located at 11740 Wilshire Blvd. a little after 8:30 a.m. The fire broke out in a seventh-floor unit, with heavy flames and smokes billowing hundreds of feet into the air.

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On 1/29/2015 a gas tanker truck making an early morning routine delivery to a maternity and children's hospital kitchen started to leak and exploded. The accident killed four, injured fifty-six, and leveled 40% of the hospital at the Maternity Hospital of Cuajimalpa Mexico around 7:15 a.m. At least two people were killed and 56 injured.

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On 1/29/2009 a man, a woman, and three children, ages 2, 10, and 11 years old were killed in a home fire with no working smoke alarms in Monaville, West Virginia.

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On 1/29/2006, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a fireworks storeroom exploded at a temple fair in Henan, China that killed thirty-six people and injuring dozens more.

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On 1/29/1998 an abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Alabama killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse. An automobile reported at the scene was traced to Eric Robert Rudolph, a 31-year-old carpenter.

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On 1/29/1989 a Saint Jerome, Quebec, Canada hospital fire killed two emergency room patients and resulted in the evacuation of 275 patients in the 300-bed hospital. The fire started in an occupied isolation room and spread into the exit corridor fueled mainly by stored stretchers having polyurethane mattresses in the emergency room on the ground floor of the non-sprinklered complex. Smoke spread vertically through the hospital’s elevator shafts requiring the complete evacuation of the healthcare facility. Firefighters controlled the fire for approximately 15 minutes. Three critically ill patients died during the transfer to other hospitals.

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On 1/29/1985 a fire on the first floor of a boarding home located at 1307 Irving Street Washington D.C. was controlled by an automatic fire sprinkler. The rowhouse was once two single-family dwellings but was converted to a boarding home for group living.?The fire was caused by smoking materials on a couch in the smoking room. Smoke detectors alerted occupants to the fire and the occupants were able to escape.

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On 1/29/1931 “a five-alarm fire Box 55-982 (plus a simultaneous call- a borough-call within the same borough, a total of 8-alarms) at Columbus Avenue & 66th Street Manhattan, New York. The Lincoln Arcade was a huge six-story building with a theatre in the center. It was home to more than 250 people (mostly artists and writers in residence and their families). At 11:30 p.m., on a cold and windy night, a fire was discovered. A few minutes after the initial companies went to work the Battalion Chief of the 9th Battalion requested 3 additional alarms as the fire extended to the roof. Several dramatic rescues were made over ice-coated aerial ladders as the fire raced through the building. The Batt Chief and members of Engine 26 were operating in the 4th-floor stairway when the stairs collapsed. They dropped two floors with the flaming debris and were quickly rescued. Thirty-five engines and four water towers drove tons of water into the blazing building. It was placed under control at 2:15 a.m. Seventeen people, including nine firefighters, were injured. Amazingly there were no fatalities!

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On 1/29/1926 Helena, Alabama twenty-seven miners died in a coal mine explosion at the Mossboro mine of the Premier Coal Company; twenty-five of fifty-three miners were able to escape uninjured.

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On 1/29/1917 Hartford, Connecticut a fire destroyed the large department store of G. Fox & Co. and the Woolworth Five and Ten Cent Store.

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On 1/29/1909 Unity, Wisconsin seven businesses and a residence were destroyed by an early morning fire.

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On 1/29/1907 a dust explosion in the Stuart Coal Mine, owned by the White Oak Fuel Company, near Fayetteville, West Virginia killed eighty-four.

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On 1/29/1903 a large store building was destroyed by an early morning fire that extended to a warehouse in Mt Airy, Maryland.

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On 1/29/1902 a fire in the “Italian Lodging House” around 1:20 a.m., (Box 10) at 12 Fleet Street in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts left eleven dead and four injured after jumping from the windows. Eleven (11) residents of a building died from smoke and burns.

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On 1/29/1974 fighting continued in South Vietnam despite the cease-fire initiated on January 28, 1973, under the Paris Peace Accords; approximately 25,000 South Vietnamese were killed in battle in 1973.

On 1/29/1854 Kansas was admitted as the 34th state to the Union as free-state, pro-and anti-slave forces in Kansas were a major factor in the eruption of the Civil War

On 1/29/1845 Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Raven," was published?

On 1/29/1843 President William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio

On 1/29/1834 President Jackson sent troops to put down a labor dispute over persistent poor working conditions and low pay on the C & O Canal near Williamsport, Maryland becoming the 1st President to use federal troops to quell labor unrest

On 1/29/1820 British King George III died

On 1/29/1777 Americans retreated from Fort Independence Bronx County, New York