Today in Fire History 4/29
On 4/29/1986 the Los Angeles (California) Central Library fire destroyed more than $2 million in the structure and $20 million of the contents. The fire required 60 fire companies, 9 rescue ambulances, 2 helicopters, 40 command officers, and over 350 firefighters, approximately 45% of the LAFD. A smoke detector was activated at 10:52 a.m. and the fire was under control at 6:30 p.m. The four hundred occupants of the library were evacuated within 8 minutes. The fire was suspected to have been deliberately set in the partially sprinklered building. “The lack of sprinkler protection, the presence of vertical ventilation and other unprotected openings in the book stack area, and the abundant fuel in the form of books contributed to the severity of the fire.? In addition, the substantial construction and complex design of the building prevented quick extinguishment of the fire.”
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On 4/29/1978 the “Fulton Street fire, a general alarm at Box 151, devoured old mills, adjacent homes, and buildings. Three Paterson Fire Department vehicles: Engine 2, Engine 5, and Battalion 2 - were also left in ruins. Hundreds of firefighters from across North Jersey provided mutual aid. The initial alarm was received at 5:31 p.m. for a four-story mill at 28 Fulton St., near the Passaic River. Initial reports suggested a grain explosion, according to The New York Times but investigators said the fire was arson.”
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On 4/29/1868 after a fire in “a paper box factory had been extinguished, a Troy, New York firefighter's unconscious body was found in a second-floor room of the factory. He was trying to either fight the fire or search for trapped occupants when the fire broke out. He was taken to his home, where he died shortly thereafter due to smoke inhalation.”
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On 4/29/1877 in Montreal, Canada a fire in an Oil Cabinet Novelty Works Company left twelve victims dead, including five firefighters, one police department member, one waterworks employee, and five civilians. The firefighters died trying to protect fellow firefighters as the building collapsed.
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On 4/29/1907 a dynamite explosion in the Luxemburg Building killed two firefighters and injured eight others in a suburb of St Louis, Missouri while fighting a fire in the small building.
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On 4/29/1909 two Chicago, Illinois firefighters, both of Truck 3, died while fighting a fire in an Illinois Central Railroad building on South Water Street. “The fire was caused by a lightning strike shortly after 4:00 a.m. The building was enveloped in flames before the first firefighters arrived at the scene. The fire was particularly persistent in an elevator that housed more than 700,000 bushels of grain. The two firefighters were fighting the grain fire when one of the elevator walls collapsed.
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On 4/29/1913 a Scranton, Pennsylvania firefighter grabbed a chemical fire extinguisher and was killed when the extinguisher exploded in his hands while answering a fire alarm.
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On 4/29/1914 a Marin County, California firefighter “died while operating at a fire, after a wooden bean fell on him and broke his neck. He was removing furniture from the first floor of the burning home.
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On 4/29/1920 a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania firefighter died from trauma injuries after being trapped
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On 4/29/1929 a Binghamton, New York firefighter was crushed to death from a collapsed wall while fighting a 3-alarm fire at the Jean Marie Garage on 275 Chenango Street located across from St. Paul’s Church.
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On 4/29/1935 the courthouse at Anuahac County, Texas was destroyed by a fire shortly after noon, all the records were saved and transferred to the adjoining county jail.
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On 4/29/1912 a fire destroyed the Morningside College's Main Hall in Sioux City, Iowa
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On 4/29/1909 the 200-room wood-frame Terra Marine Hotel, located on the Staten Island Turnpike at Huguenot, Staten Island, New York was destroyed by a fire.
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On 4/29/1897 a Warren, Pennsylvania fire that started at noon in a shed connected to the Germania Hotel and spread rapidly to the hotel, the Union Schoolhouse, the Methodist Church, and four or five dwellings.
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On 4/29/1896 a fire in the afternoon destroyed the entire business portion of the city of Cripple Creek, Colorado, and left 1,000 people, in “a biting raw wind and the thermometer crowding the zero mark.”
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On 4/29/1992 riots erupted in Los Angeles, California after the Rodney King trial verdict was announced acquitting four police officers.
On 4/29/1991 a cyclone (Indian Ocean hurricane) killed over 135,000 in Bangladesh.
On 4/29/1965 five people died after an earthquake hit Seattle, Washington.
On 4/29/1429 “during the Hundred Years' War, the 17-year-old French peasant Joan of Arc led a French force in relieving the city of Orleans, besieged by the English since October.”