Today in Fire History 5/6

On 5/6/1937 the zeppelin Hindenburg, the pride of Nazi Germany, fire killed thirty-six and the zeppelin industry, at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The 804’ long by 135’ diameter 247,100 pounds airship originally intended to be filled with helium was filled with 7,000,000 ft3 flammable hydrogen gas in 16 cells and was destroyed in 34 seconds. “The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with a mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township. The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) among the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), and an additional fatality on the ground… The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field, which were broadcast the next day. A variety of hypotheses have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The publicity shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era.”

On 5/6/1897 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died of smoke inhalation while operating at a basement fire. Twenty-two firefighters who tried to rescue him and who were sufficiently affected to necessitate their removal to the hospital.”

On 5/6/1925 “while mopping up at a three-alarm warehouse fire at the Jass Manufacturing Company, 321 Decatur Street, six Atlanta, Georgia, firefighters were killed instantly when the floor above them, which was loaded with over 150 bales of cotton, collapsed on top of them. Eight other firefighters were severely injured. The cause of the collapse was attributed to the weight of the water-soaked bales resting on fire-weakened timbers.”

On 5/6/1933 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died as a result of the injuries he sustained the previous day when he and his company were caught in a roof collapse while operating at a three-alarm fire.”

On 5/6/1958 an Indianapolis, Indiana firefighter “was overcome by smoke while attempting a reported rescue at a residential fire. He was found unconscious inside the home and could not be revived. The report that there was a need for rescue turned out to be false.”

On 5/6/1968 a Baltimore, Maryland died while “working fire in a vacant two-story brick dwelling. While manning a line on the roof of the building, he collapsed and died of an apparent massive heart attack. External heart massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation were performed at the scene to no avail.”

On 5/6/1979 an East Haddam, Connecticut firefighter “died after suffering a heart attack and burns, while operating at a fire.”

On 5/6/2015 six cars of a BNSF crude oil train derail and a fire erupted, forcing the temporary evacuation of Heimdal, North Dakota.

On 5/6/1923 a mine explosion near Aguilar, Colorado trapped and killed ten men.

On 5/6/1882 the Racine, Wisconsin multi-block conflagration started in the Goodrich warehouse at about 10:00 p.m. and rapidly spread to the lumber yards and continued to extend north of Third Street, from the lake to the river, mutual aid was requested from Milwaukee and Chicago.

On 5/6/1839 near Natchez, Mississippi the Steamer George Collier explosion killed twenty and injured over twenty-five around 1:00 a.m.?

On 5/6/1942 during World War II General Wainwright and the American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese.

On 5/6/1861 Arkansas and Tennessee became the 9th and 10th states to secede from the United States during the Civil War.

George Sears Greene was born on May 6, 1801, in Apponaug, Rhode Island; a graduated from West Point in 1819 he served in the Army as a civil engineer. He rejoined the army in 1862 and became a brigadier general, and fought in many battles including; Gettysburg where his lone brigade successfully held the right flank of the Union army on Culp’s Hill. After the Civil War, he returned to civil engineering, becoming president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in the 1870s. For many years he was the oldest living graduate of West Point. He died in New Jersey in 1899 and is buried in Warwick, Rhode Island.