Today in Fire History 4/26

On 4/26/1903 two Portland, Maine firefighters died at “a spectacular lumberyard fire on a wharf that was threatening the entire waterfront as a stiff breeze off the harbor blew burning embers over the entire area. Second and third alarms were struck as flaming embers landed in other lumberyards and wharves to the east and west of the original fire. As the members of Engine 3 and Ladder 3 were waiting for their line to be wet on an adjacent wharf, a sudden wind shift ignited the shed of a lumber company, causing it to become engulfed in fire very rapidly. Two firefighters made a break for it and ran through the flames. They emerged on the other side, bathed in flames, and were quickly extinguished by brother firefighters, but not before being critically burned. Both men were rushed to the hospital, where they died a short time later as a result of their burns.”

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On 4/26/1903 a Columbus, Ohio firefighter died “while operating at a general-alarm fire involving a clothing company and three other commercial buildings. He was killed when he was caught under a collapsing wall.”

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On 4/26/1908 a Houston, Texas firefighter “died while fighting a large fire at the Mercantile Grain Company located at 1215 Hardy Street. The blaze began at six o’clock Sunday morning in the main warehouse of the plant where sacks of grain and feed were kept. After the fire was extinguished, crews were assigned to work among the sacks to make sure the fire was out. He and another firefighter were given this assignment. Both were on top of the sacks, looking for small fires when suddenly the ceiling fell, crushing one firefighter. The second firefighter saved himself by grabbing a large ceiling beam.”

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On 4/26/1920 a Decatur, Indiana firefighter “was working at the scene of a fire in the plant of the Schafer Saddlery Company when a piece of concrete fell from the building striking him on the head. He was transported to a local hospital where he later died.”

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On 4/26/1924 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter became the ninth firefighter to die from his injuries eight days after an arson fire destroyed Curran’s Hall, a four-story commercial building at 1363 Blue Island Avenue in Chicago. “On April 18, 1924, eight Chicago Fire Department firefighters died, and more than twenty were injured, when the walls of the building collapsed during firefighting operations. A civilian also died while trying to help rescue firefighters from the rubble.”

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On 4/26/1935 a Queens, New York (FDNY) firefighter “was overcome by smoke while fighting a small house fire at the home of actress Lillian Considine. He complained of feeling ill while inside the home and collapsed. He was carried outside and worked for over an hour but was pronounced dead.”

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On 4/26/1936 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter “was burned while fighting a 5-11 fire at the Douglas Home, a landmark hotel on Vincennes Avenue on April 12th. He remained delirious in the hospital for several weeks until he fractured his skull when he jumped out a second-story window at Alexian Brothers Hospital on April 23. He died from his injuries on April 26, 1936.”

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On 4/26/1949 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter “died after being overcome by fumes at a fire on April 24, 1949.”

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On 4/26/1960 a Jersey City, New Jersey firefighter died “while operating on the roof at a three-alarm fire involving four occupied apartment buildings. He became blinded by the dense smoke stumbled into an airshaft and fell five floors to his death. His body was found lying on the pavement about 20 minutes later.”

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On 4/26/1962 a Des Plains, Illinois firefighter “died during the rescue of three workers trapped thirty feet underground in a sanitary sewer near the intersection of River Road and Rand Road. The workers had been exposed to methane gas while removing a bulkhead that had been used to seal off an older sewer line during the construction of a new sewer. At around 1:30 p.m., a restaurant owner called the Des Plaines Fire Department after a sewer worker ran into his restaurant to report that three of his coworkers were unconscious at the bottom of the sewer shaft. Firefighters responded to the scene and several firefighters, including the one who died, descended into the sewer wearing self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) masks, each with a twelve-minute supply of air. With some assistance from civilians, the firefighter successfully rescued the three trapped workers, but he, the last firefighter to leave the sewer, ran out of oxygen (air) and was overcome by sewer gas. The firefighter was further injured when he fell more than twenty feet to the sewer floor while his colleagues were helping him exit the sewer shaft. He was taken to Lutheran General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The three sewer workers, along with three other firefighters, were all successfully treated at local hospitals.”

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On 4/26/1970 a Santa Maria, California firefighter “suffered fatal injuries while fighting a fire at the Bradley Hotel on the corner of Main Street and Broadway. The Bradley Hotel was a large wooden structure that was vacant and scheduled to be demolished. He was on the top of a retaining wall adjacent to the structure, directing water down on the flames when the building imploded and he was pulled into the fire.”

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On 4/26/1981 a Miami-Dade County, Florida firefighter was killed helping a motorist on the Palmetto Expressway. “The firefighter had stopped to help a woman trapped in a burning car. He was off duty and returning home from dinner with his wife. He had her pullover and dashed to the burning car. The vehicle had hit a power pole and the firefighter was electrocuted when he touched the car’s door. The woman he tried to save survived.”

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On 4/26/2013 thirty-eight people were killed in a psychiatric hospital fire that spread through a single-story building with bars on some windows in Ramensky, Russia, 70 miles north of Moscow. The housed people were sent there on grounds of mental illness by Russian courts.

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On 4/26/1921 a Lampasas, Texas fire destroyed a building that housed a bank, dry goods, and grocery stores; the fire threatened the whole business block.

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On 4/26/1907 an explosion occurred on the sixth level, 1,500 feet below the surface, in the Morgan Slope mine killing four men and injuring five near Black Diamond, Washington.

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On 4/26/1986 the Chornobyl nuclear power facility exploded and fire near the town of Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR. During a catastrophic power increase the reactor vessel ruptured and exposed, the graphite moderator, and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke into the atmosphere covering an extensive geographical area, radiation levels in the reactor building have been estimated to be 5.6 roentgen per second (R/s)

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On 4/26/1913 thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan was found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta, Georgia, pencil factory where she worked. Her murder later led to one of the most disgraceful episodes of bigotry, injustice, and mob violence in American history.

On 4/26/1865 during the Civil War, the battle of Fort Tobacco, Virginia began.

On 4/26/1865 Confederate General J. E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee, at Durham North Carolina.

On 4/26/1865 John Wilkes Booth was killed when Union soldiers tracked him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.