Today in Fire History 6/2

On 6/2/1992 at approximately 2:15 a.m. fire in an adult foster care facility in Detroit, Michigan killed ten occupants of the sixteen predominantly elderly individuals that lived in the facility with one night supervisor. The renovated three-story two-family dwelling had been converted into an adult foster care facility. The fire started from smoking materials discarded in a wastebasket in a first-floor kitchen and spread to the combustible interior finish materials, open stairs and unprotected vertical openings allowed combustion products to spread throughout the building. “The owners, Janie Nelson and Ophelia Simmons, both of Detroit, had their license lifted to operate the former Mid-City Living Quarters, an adult care facility, on March 17, 1978, after a series of major state violations, said a Department of Social Services official.” “The fire building was originally a two-family dwelling that was converted to a rooming house sometime in the 1960s. City building officials reported that their records indicated the dwelling was classified as a multi-family dwelling operating as a rooming house when they began regular inspections of it in 1969. In February 1975, the occupancy was licensed as an adult foster care facility by the Michigan Department of Social Services. An adult foster care facility would be classified as a board and care facility under National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code? (NFPA 101), and a Use Group I-l structure by the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) National Building Code, 1990 edition.”

On 6/2/1853 a Manhattan, New York firefighter was “killed while operating at a fire. He succumbed to burns and injuries received three days earlier when he was assisting the fire department fight a fire on Essex Street. He fell through the grating into the basement of the house where he struck his head and received severe burns.”

On 6/2/1924 a Little Rock, Arkansas firefighter died “after operating at a multi-alarm fire involving a hardware store for nearly five hours. Several firefighters became trapped when a massive explosion occurred, collapsing the remainder of the building down on them. Rescue efforts were launched immediately, and after two hours of fierce digging, two seriously injured firefighters were freed. Exhausted firefighters were now aided by members of the Street Department to find the missing firefighter. Twelve hours after the fire started, he was found submerged under three feet of water. The cause of the explosion was attributed to a quantity of black powder that was stored in the building.”

On 6/2/1939 a Jersey City, New Jersey firefighter died “from asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation while operating at 2nd-alarm Box 273, Coles and 19th Streets, in a warehouse building used for storage of charcoal products.”

On 6/2/1956 a Spokane, Washington firefighter died at “a fire in the shoe store on the street level of the Peyton Building that eventually went to a third alarm. Fifteen engines and eighty firefighters worked the incident. Seven firefighters were advancing a hose into the fire when the floor collapsed from beneath them, plunging them all into the basement. Some of the firefighters already in the basement were trapped and injured by the falling debris. One firefighter was crushed under a falling safe. Seventeen firefighters were sent to the hospital and twenty-five others were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.”

On 6/2/1965 a Wichita, Kansas firefighter “lost his life from an explosion and fire at the Red Bud Supermarket at Grove and 21st Street.”

On 6/2/1968 a South Saint Paul, Minnesota firefighter “was killed while working at the "Coast-To-Coast" fire at 121 North Concord Street. He was working as part of a "mop-up" crew, dousing remaining embers. The firefighter was killed when welds on the aerial ladder failed, causing the ladder to collapse. Impaled on the handle which directed the nozzle of the ladder, he was pronounced dead on arrival at Saint Paul's Ramsey Hospital.”

On 6/2/1969 a Cleveland, Ohio firefighter “suffered a fatal heart attack while operating at a fire at the Saint Anthony Home for Boys on Detroit Avenue.”

On 6/2/2011 two San Francisco firefighters died while operating at a fire in a multi-level residential structure fire (four-story rear, on a deep slope) while searching for the seat of the fire. The residential structure where the fatalities occurred was built on a significantly sloped hillside common throughout the city. The fire floor was one floor below street level. “Units were dispatched to a report of a structure fire in a residence at a four-story home at 133 Berkeley Way. Engine 26 was the first unit on the scene and reported light smoke showing from the garage. The two firefighters entered the structure to assess conditions. The firefighters stretched a 200-foot pre-connected attack line into the structure. As firefighters worked on the scene, a window in the fire room failed, allowing the introduction of additional oxygen to the fire. The fire progressed rapidly up a stairwell and overcame the two firefighters. Firefighters could not advance hose lines into the building until the original fire was controlled. Firefighters found and removed the two missing firefighters from the building and initiated treatment. Despite their efforts, one firefighter died that day, and the second died on June 4, 2011. Both firefighters died as the result of burns.”

On 6/2/2020 two firefighters died and fifteen “were wounded after two explosions in a perfume shop in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The fire was on Argentina’s National Firefighter Day. As firefighters were picking up from an initial explosion and fire, there was a second blast. Reports state that the initial alarm came in at 5:00 p.m. An explosion occurred one hour later that came from the basement of the perfume shop, called Pigmento. Perfumeries are among the shops considered essential during the coronavirus lockdown in Buenos Aires, as they sell face masks and hand sanitizers.”

On 6/2/1993 a morning accidental fire that started in a faulty plug or wiring in a single-story, wood frame, brick-veneer, sprinklered structure, the Elmwood Village Convalescent Home with 167 residents, in Ashland, Kentucky was successfully evacuated. Around 2:49 a.m. firefighters found heavy smoke and one of two sprinklers operating in the room of fire origin controlling the fire that was quickly extinguished. However, smoke was able to spread to several wings when fire doors were opened during fire operations. A post-fire inspection of the sprinkler system revealed that debris in the sprinkler system piping prevented the operation of one sprinkler in the room of fire origin.?

On 6/2/1983 twenty-three die after an in-flight fire that began at 7:02 p.m. in the rear lavatory of Air Canada Flight 797 a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 near Cincinnati, Ohio en route from Dallas-Fort Worth to Toronto at an altitude of 33,000 feet. The flight deck crew was able to safely land the aircraft at 7:20 p.m. Once on the ground, the emergency exits were opened and the severity of the interior fire increased. Twenty-three persons safely evacuated the aircraft.

On 6/2/1927 in Sterling, Massachusetts a fire started in the finishing room and destroyed the furniture plant around noon.

On 6/2/1923 children playing with matches caused a conflagration that destroyed more than forty homes and stores in Canaan, New Hampshire. The fire started in a barn in the center of the village near the railroad, three were reported dead.

On 6/2/1905 four blocks in the business district were destroyed by fire in Oneonta, New York.

On 6/2/1886 in Alliance, Ohio the four-story brick Marchand's Opera House collapsed at 4:10 p.m. located at the corner of Main and Fifth Streets.

On 6/2/1997 Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, that killed 168 people.

6/2/1935 Babe Ruth retired?