Today in Fire History 4/3
On 4/3/1962 “the Norwich, Connecticut fire department lost four firefighters in a violent and fiery explosion at the Van Tassel warehouse. An employee reported smoke coming from the trailer of a truck that was being unloaded at the dock. The truck was carrying a 20-ton load of organic peroxides from New York that may have been ignited by friction or a leak. The initial call to dispatch was at 1:22 p.m. and Engines 1 and 3 were sent to the scene at the dead-end of Forest Street. Box 125 was received at 1:25 p.m. and Norwich’s Engine 2 and the ladder truck were dispatched, as well. Engine 1 secured a water supply and pulled past the trailer. Engine 3 arrived and stopped just short of the truck’s tractor. Five firefighters crouched behind the concrete loading platform wall to direct a 2-? inch hose stream into the rear of the smoldering trailer. The van exploded killing three of the five firefighters behind the wall. Another firefighter from Engine 3 was caught in the fireball and killed. The two remaining firefighters had to wait 30 minutes to be rescued due to the severity of the fire that followed. The wooden warehouse buildings, containing approximately one million pounds of bagged charcoal briquettes, were blown down and began to burn. Engines 1 and 3 were destroyed. The explosion caused damage throughout a large portion of the city and was felt as far away as Montville and Preston. The tractor-trailer was placarded appropriately, for the time being, with “Dangerous” on both sides and rear. This tragedy leads to stricter guidelines for transportation and placarding of hazardous materials for the entire country.”
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On 4/3/1883 a second gas explosion in the cellar of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California killed two firefighters and injured nine others. The cause of the explosion was due to a broken gas main, that was in the process of being repaired.
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On 4/3/1892 two large fires broke out almost simultaneously resulting from carelessness that caused great destruction in New Orleans, Louisiana, and killed two children and injured three firefighters.
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On 4/3/1902 a Boston, Massachusetts firefighter “died at Boston City Hospital around 12:40 p.m., after inhaling Nitric Acid fumes from a broken carboy while operating at a Still Alarm at 86-92 Sudbury Street, Downtown. The Still Alarm at 10:51 a.m. on April 1 occurred in the basement of J. Wiley & Company, a paint, and oil establishment.”
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On 4/3/1927 an Orlando, Florida firefighter collapsed and died on the tailboard of Engine 2 before arriving at Orange Memorial Hospital following a large house fire on Tampa Avenue.
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On 4/3/1938 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter died at “a three-alarm fire involved an irregularly shaped, two-story stable with 131 horses trapped inside. He was climbing a ladder to the roof and was killed when an explosion caused a wall to collapse, knocking him from the ladder. Several other firefighters were seriously injured.”
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On 4/3/1944 a Toronto, Ontario, Canada firefighter “collapsed and died while working inside a smoke-filled house on Braemar Avenue.”
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On 4/3/1959 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died of smoke inhalation while operating at a single-alarm blaze.”
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On 4/3/1989 three Oklahoma City, Oklahoma firefighters “were engulfed in a fireball after gases built up inside a one-story house at 2421 SW 30 on March 8th. They were unaware that the house had been remodeled. One firefighter died at the scene, the second died on the 9th, and the third firefighter died on April 3rd. During the incident, flashover indicators were present, with high levels of heat and heavy smoke being reported by first-in companies. However, the fire gave a false indication that it had vented itself through the roof. Unknown at the time to the fire crew operating inside was that the house had two additions. The fire they saw outside the structure was between an existing roof and one of the two added-on roof coverings.”
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On 4/3/2020 a fire at Southwest Florida International Airport destroyed over 3,500 rental cars and potentially contaminated 50 acres of land.? “The fire spread across 15 acres at the rental car overflow area of Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) the Lee County Port Authority said. The fire was fully contained and extinguished Saturday as crews worked through the night Friday, putting out the flames to ensure it did not continue to spread or cause further damage. More than 3,800 rental cars, belonging to the various rental car agencies that serve the airport, were undamaged and relocated.” “According to the State Fire Marshal, (DFS) Division of Investigative & Forensic Services, officials determined the fire, “originated near ground level” and was likely caused by a hot exhaust system contacting dry grass underneath a car at the airport’s rental car parking lot.”?
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On 4/3/2015 the General Electric storage warehouse fire in Louisville, Kentucky resulted in a $110 million loss. The 700,000-square-foot building was part of the General Electric Appliance Park. Over 100 firefighters from 18 departments responded to the incident. The cause was never determined, although it was narrowed down to either an electrical failure or a lightning strike. “While Appliance Park had a once-robust water-based fire protection system, with hydrants and sprinklers fed by an on-site water supply and fire pumps, the system was overwhelmed by the rapidly spreading fire. Most of the fire pumps proved inoperable on the day of the fire and the ceiling sprinklers inside AP-6 weren’t engineered to control fires involving highly combustible materials like plastics.” “General Electric was planning a sprinkler upgrade for a large storage facility in Kentucky that over the years had undergone a slow but significant change of occupancy.” “The GE fire illustrates what can go wrong when building owners fail to make changes to water-based fire protection systems after the use of an occupancy change.”
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On 4/3/2013 a fire in an unoccupied 40-story high-rise apartment building under construction in Chechnya, Russia caused extensive damage.
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On 4/3/2012 around 5:00 a.m. fire at the Kachalovo construction market on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia killed seventeen migrant workers sleeping in a metal shed on the premises, all were citizens of former Soviet nations in Central Asia.
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On 4/3/2008 in Brockway, Pennsylvania a house fire claimed ten lives, including a 40-year-old woman, five of her children, and three grandchildren that may have started from a space heater.
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On 4/3/1967 the Balmer North coal mine explosion killed fifteen in Natal, ?British Columbia around 4:00 p.m.
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On 4/3/1945 Ladder Company 1, a unique 100’ Magirus* was used by the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Fire Department to get the hose line to the top floor of Saint Roses Orphan Asylum when it burned. The sanctuary was founded in 1848 and was located next to Saint Mary’s Hospital on North Lake Drive was one of many social welfare institutions established during the reign of Milwaukee Catholic Bishop John Henri. (*Dietrich Magirus invented the first free-standing, mobile turntable ladder in 1864)
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On 4/3/1930 a fireworks plant explosion in Devon, Pennsylvania killed nine, including two children who were playing near the facility around 9:50 a.m. “The plant consisted of ten small buildings on a seven-acre tract of land near the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline to the west.” ?
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On 4/3/1909 in Bradford, Pennsylvania over thirty young schoolchildren and four men, mostly residents of the Third Ward, were severely burned in an afternoon gas explosion at a new oil well on School Street.
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On 4/3/1856 gunpowder in a church exploded killing 4,000 in Rhodes, Greece.
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On 4/3/1852 the Paducah, Kentucky conflagration destroyed 40 buildings.
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On 4/3/1852 the Redstone Steamer boiler explosion near Carrolton, Kentucky killed nine.
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On 4/3/1860 the Pony Express debuted with mail service from Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California.
On 4/3/1865 during the Civil War Richmond, Virginia was captured.
On 4/3/1882 Jesse James was shot to death by Bob Ford.
On 4/3/1942 the Japanese military launched a major offensive against Bataan during World War II.
On 4/3/1955 the night express train in Guadalajara derails, killing 300.
On 4/3/1996 the Unabomber, Theodore John Kaczynski, was arrested in a cabin near Lincoln, Montana.