Today in Fire History 3/26

On 3/26/1873 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter died of head injuries while operating at a fire at 16th and Spruce.

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On 3/26/1892 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died after he was injured while fighting a fire at the Cribben and Sexton Stove Foundry at 84th E. Erie Street. “Firefighters responded to the fire alarm at the foundry shortly after 8:00 p.m. The firefighter joined another firefighter on the roof of the three-story building to help tear away shingles to give fire hoses access to the intense interior flames. When the front wall of the building suddenly collapsed and brought down a portion of the roof, He fell into the burning building. The other firefighters did not immediately realize he was missing, and when they found him he was severely burned and pinned down by a heavy rafter. The firefighter was still alive when he was freed from the rubble, and he was transported to Alexian Brothers Hospital where he died from his injuries.”

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On 3/26/1906 four Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighters “were killed by a falling wall in a four-alarm fire that started in a seven-story factory building at the southeast corner of Bedford and Downing Streets. They entered an older building in the rear of the fire building through third-floor windows and were directing the water into the burning structure. The men were in a building that was over one hundred years old. When the fire building’s rear wall collapsed the mass of white-hot bricks crashed upon it, crumpling it like a house of cardboard and flattening it to the ground, with the men down in the ruins. Of the six men who went down in the crash two were soon calling for help.”

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On 3/26/1914 two Sioux City, Iowa firefighters “were killed while operating at a fire that swept the southeast quarter block at Fourth and Nebraska Streets. Persons living on the upper floors of the Brown block who were cut off by the flames made their escape by jumping into the nets and going down fire escapes. The two firefighters were caught under a falling wall.”

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On 3/26/1943 a Boston, Massachusetts firefighter “died as a result of injures received while working at 293-297 Medford Street, 4 alarms Box 4164, (Medford & Pearl Streets), on March 15. The fire was in the Winde-McCormack and Chapman Company.”

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On 3/26/1947 a Cleveland, Ohio firefighter died after he was trapped under falling walls of Franklin Boulevard Methodist Church at West 32nd Street and Franklin Boulevard.

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On 3/26/1950 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died as a result of injuries sustained the previous day while operating at an alarm.”

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On 3/26/2008 a Los Angeles, California firefighter died when sparks from a rotary saw ignited combustible gases that had accumulated in the locked room and a large explosion occurred. “Firefighters were dispatched to investigate smoke coming from a structure in the area of 8800 South Sepulveda Boulevard, in the Westchester area, City of Los Angeles. The incident occurred in the same area where another engine was assigned to an electrical vault fire in the street. Upon their arrival on the scene, firefighters were assigned to force entry into a room that housed electrical equipment and had been emitting smoke. He was using a rotary saw to attempt to gain access. He was mortally injured in the explosion when he was struck both by the rotary saw and the door.”

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On 3/26/2014 two firefighters died at a nine-alarm fire in a brick multifamily residential brownstone-style structure in Boston’s, Massachusetts, Back Bay neighborhood, in the basement of the burning building after flames destroyed their hoseline. “They stretched a hoseline down a set of stairs to attack a fire located in a basement apartment. A basement window had broken and allowed high winds to further fuel the fire, which overtook both firefighters. There were “desperate mayday calls from the basement and were asking for more water within minutes of entering the building. Fire officials said smoke was showing upon their arrival at the building at 2:43 p.m. The two firefighters raced inside to locate the source of the fire while fellow firefighters worked to rescue anyone trapped inside. A mere two or three minutes later, they issued the mayday call, and all firefighters were ordered out of the building. Firefighters believe a front-facing window shattered and high winds turned the fire into an instant inferno”. Thirteen firefighters were also injured.” “The structure involved in the fire was built in 1899 with a total living space of 6,376 square feet. The style of the structure was locally known as “brownstone.” Brownstone is the common name for a variety of brown, red, and pink sandstone widely used as an exterior building material from the mid-1800s until the early 1900s. The Type III ordinary construction structure had five floors including a basement. In this type of structure, the bottom or ground floor is called the basement. The floor entered by the front steps is called the first floor. The bottom or ground floor identified as the basement is different from most basements as there is access from the front and rear of the structure and access by interior stairs. More than half of the basement was above street level. The lot size was 3,600 square feet.

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On 3/26/2015 a Cincinnati, Ohio firefighter “died from injuries he sustained in a fall down an elevator shaft while working with fire crews to rescue the residents and extinguish a fire in a Madisonville neighborhood apartment building. Some of the residents were reported to have suffered smoke inhalation and one other firefighter was injured with second-degree burns in the fire.”

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On 3/26/1948 a fire in Odessa, Texas burned out six business firms and damaged two others that started around 12:07 a.m. “The building was a masonry and concrete construction, but lack of fire stops made the fire difficult to confine.”

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On 3/26/1947 a family of five died in a deadly Berea, Kentucky house fire.

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On 3/26/1942 a premature dynamite explosion in a limestone quarry in Easton, Pennsylvania at the Lehigh Portland Cement Company killed seven.

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On 3/26/1937 an oil refinery explosion and fire killed two near Greeley, Colorado.

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On 3/26/1930 near Arnettsville, West Virginia a gas explosion in the Yukon Mine of the Crown Coal Company killed eleven.

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On 3/26/1912 a Jed, West Virginia coal mine explosion and fire killed eighty-three. “The mine was inspected last Friday and pronounced safe.”

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On 3/26/1912 a fire destroyed three principal Bellows Falls, Vermont downtown business structures all brick construction; “it is thought was caused by a carelessly thrown cigarette.”

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On 3/26/1887 the Claremont, New Hampshire Browns Block was destroyed by an early morning fire.

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On 3/26/1882 a conflagration in Richmond, Virginia destroyed seven large tobacco factories, many tenement houses, the Vulcan Ironworks, the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Bridge over the James River, and a large amount of other property.

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On 3/26/1882 a fire swept through Williamsport, Maryland that destroyed several buildings.

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On 3/26/1953 Dr. Jonas Salk announced the polio vaccine, 1952 was an epidemic year for polio with more than 58,000 new cases and 3,000 deaths reported in the U.S. Poliomyelitis is a disease that attacks the nervous system and causes varying degrees of paralysis.

On 3/26/1944 a bomber crashed in Eau Gallie, Florida while attempting to land at the Melbourne Naval Air Base killing the crew of ten and injuring one.

On 3/26/1872 a magnitude of 7.8 earthquake in the Owens Valley of California killed thirty and was felt from Oregon to Mexico.