Today in Fire History 3/3

On 3/3/1883 an Albany, New York firefighter was killed while operating at a general alarm grain elevator fire.

On 3/3/1884 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter “died as a result of injuries sustained February 20th, when he was caught under a collapsing wall while operating at a fire in the Lathbury flour warehouse.”

On 3/3/1907 a Newark, New Jersey firefighter died while “he was fighting a café fire in the basement of 156 Market Street when he was overcome by smoke. He collapsed into a pool of water on the floor and died from drowning.”

On 3/3/1920 two Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighters “died as a result of severe burns they sustained in a gas explosion on February 26th.”

On 3/3/1934 two London, Ontario, Canada firefighters died while fighting a fire at the Hunt’s Company Flour Mill on Nightingale Avenue in the city’s east end. “On the night of March 3, at 5:20 p.m., the crew from Station 2 on Dundas Street responded to a fire in the Mill. Upon arrival, they found smoke coming from the upper floor of the six-story building. The Chief had the men stretch a line to the top floor and help with search and rescue, as several mill employees were still in the building. The Chief of the Department arrived on the scene and sounded a 2nd Alarm. The smoke started to get thicker, and it was hard to find the seat of the fire. Two members were operating inside when a dust explosion occurred, and the fire quickly grew. With zero visibility and high heat, the crew split up and were forced to seek windows, while two firefighters found the hose and followed it to the stairwell. Part of the group was rescued off the 6th floor by an aerial ladder, at full extension. Another group was not able to be reached by aerials, and two firefighters found a window and jumped the 75 feet to a life net, surviving with injuries to them and the members holding the life net. Two firefighters were both last seen trying to make their way to a window but were overcome by smoke and died. The fire grew rapidly, and a defensive attack was set up. Recovery operations could not begin until the next morning and the bodies were recovered under the debris.”

On 3/3/1947 a London, Ontario, Canada firefighter died while fighting a fire at 9:58 p.m. in the area of the Grand Dairy Lunch on Richmond Street downtown. “Upon arrival, he found a serious fire in the London Venetian Blind Manufacturing Company just north of the Grand Theatre. He ordered a fast attack from Pumper 1 and as he assisted in stretching the hose, he collapsed.

On 3/3/1970 a Boston, Massachusetts firefighter “died of injuries he received during a very stubborn cellar fire in a carpet store at 2235 Washington Street, Roxbury, a three-alarm fire, Box 2124, (Washington & Palmer Streets). The smoke was very thick, and he had just come out of the basement to change his air tank for the third time when he collapsed.”

On 3/3/1970 a Thurston-Walterville, Oregon firefighter died “while fighting a fire, he was manning a 2-? inch hose, during a fully involved single-family structure fire, when he suddenly collapsed.

On 3/3/1982 a Bridgeport, Connecticut firefighter “died of the injuries he sustained after being caught in a roof collapse.

On 3/3/1985 a Freeport, New York firefighter “died while operating at Box 232.”

On 3/3/2000 an arson fire claimed the life of a firefighter, and a civilian, and severely injured another firefighter in Fraser, Michigan. “The firefighters arrived at a fire and saw heavy smoke coming from the front door of the apartment building and a female civilian in an upstairs apartment window. Two firefighters with full turnout gear and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), proceeded up the stairs to attempt a rescue of the trapped female civilian. They located the female civilian in the kitchen area and proceeded with her back toward the entrance to the apartment. As the firefighters opened the apartment door, they were confronted with heavy fire and extreme heat. They retreated to the kitchen without the female civilian and entered the bathroom where they broke out a window and attempted to climb out. As one firefighter was attempting to climb out the window, the other firefighter passed out and fell into the bathtub. Firefighting personnel on the fireground saw the firefighter attempting to climb out the window and yelled for him to jump. A mutual-aid engine company arrived on the scene and threw a ladder to the window he was attempting to exit. The firefighter was removed from the window and was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Personnel on the fireground of the fire realized they had a second firefighter trapped in the upstairs bathroom. Two firefighters entered through the bathroom window and rescued the second firefighter who was then transported to a nearby hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation and third-degree burns to 30% of his upper body. The trapped female civilian was fatally injured… The building involved in this incident was a two-story, Co-Op apartment of Type III ordinary construction. The site of this incident was just one of six arson fires concentrated in a 1?-mile area that the department had responded to within the 24-hour period in which this incident occurred.”

On 3/3/2013 a fire killed nine children at Senegalese Koranic School while forty children were sleeping in a crowded room at a Koranic school in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

On 3/3/2012 a man, a woman, and two children died in a Warren, Ohio house fire; there were no working smoke alarms in the home.?

On 3/3/1992 a gas explosion in a coal mine at Zonguldak, Turkey killed 263.

On 3/3/1962 an explosion killed thirty-one as they filled gasoline cans from a leaking truck in Syria.

On 3/3/1960 a gas explosion wrecked a two-story brick building leaving one dead and two injured during a snowstorm in Palmyra, Missouri.

On 3/3/1916 a gas pipe fire on the first floor quickly spread through the walls of a large frame tenement on Depot Square occupied by 50 families in Hastings-On-Hudson, New York. Many families, disinclined to put their money in banks, hid their cash in their rooms. A large sofa, pushed out a first-floor window, was quickly surrounded by over a dozen men who tore it apart and recovered rolls of bills.

On 3/3/1911 a fire totally “destroyed two Albany, Wisconsin buildings, put the electric light plant out of business, and damaged several other stores” in the small town. ?

On 3/3/1908 the three-story frame schoolhouse in Rock Hill, Texas was destroyed by a fire. ?

On 3/3/1898 the Every One's Home Hotel, the adjoining saloon, and the dance hall in Dyea, Arkansas were destroyed by a fire that killed five guests where more than twenty persons were sleeping.

On 3/3/1896 the Providence Hosiery Mills, on Buckley Street in Bristol, Pennsylvania was totally destroyed by fire shortly before 1:00 a.m.

On 3/3/1896 a fire was caused by the explosion of an alcohol tank in a hat shop in Danbury, Connecticut destroyed 15 buildings

On 3/3/1890 a coal mine gas explosion and fire killed seven near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

On 3/3/1905 the U.S. Forest Service was formed

On 3/3/1791 the first internal revenue act taxed distilled spirits and carriages was enacted.

On 3/3/1931 President Herbert Hoover signed legislation that officially designated ¨The Star-Spangled Banner¨ as America's National Anthem. “By the dawn’s early light on September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key peered through a spyglass and spotted an American flag still waving over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry after a fierce night of British bombardment. In a patriotic fervor, he penned the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” For more than a century, the song had grown in popularity among Americans and by the third decade of the 20th century had already become the nation's de facto anthem.

On 3/3/1845 Florida became the 27th state admitted to the Union, with an area of 65,755 square miles, ranked 22nd in size among the other states. Florida has the longest coastline 1,350 miles in the contiguous United States. With a population of over 21.7 million in 2020, Florida is the third-most populated state. The first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called it la Florida ([la flo??iea] "the land of flowers") upon landing there.

On 3/3/1863 during the Civil War, Congress passes a conscription act producing the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens.

On 3/3/1945 Finland declared war on Germany

On 3/3/1952 the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York state law that prohibits communists from teaching in public schools.?