Today in Fire History 7/28
On 7/28/2011 in Asheville North Carolina, a standpipe failure led to the death of a firefighter and injured nine others at the Biltmore Center, 445 Biltmore Avenue. A six-floor (80’ tall) non-combustible office building which had passed a required inspection in April and passed several post-fire tests. Investigators determined someone with a passkey set the fire by pouring fuel in four spots inside a fifth-floor suite. The four-alarm fire started around 12:30 p.m. while the building was occupied by more than 200 occupants who were able to escape. “A firefighter died and 9 firefighters were injured in a 6-story medical building fire while searching for the seat of the fire. At 12:28 a.m., dispatch sent four companies (2 engines, 1 truck, and a squad company) to an automatic fire alarm at a multistory medical building. Engine 2 reported a working fire with heavy smoke and fire showing on the top floor rear of the structure and requested a second alarm. Instead, the dispatch center sent a Division Chief, Battalion Chief, Safety Officer, Engine Company, Rescue company, and Fire Marshal as the complement for a working fire first alarm. Engine 2 firefighters connected 100 feet of 2?-inch hoseline to the standpipe in the stairwell on the top floor. Engine 2 flowed water for several seconds when their low-air alarms went off and they exited the structure. Rescue 3 took the hoseline but had issues getting water to flow. The top two floors and the north stairwell were now heavy with smoke. Ladder 1 was setting up at the A/B corner to access a window on the 6th level (labeled 5th floor), side B. Two of Rescue 3’s members were getting low on air, and the crew moved to the stairwell to exit the building. Two of the members exited the stairwell, but a firefighter (the victim) went down the hallway and two firefighters followed him. The low-air alarms on the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) of one firefighter (victim) and two other firefighters were sounding when they reached the hallway that was connected to the fire rooms. One of the firefighters grabbed the victim, who was acting confused, and started back to the stairwell. The other firefighter got separated in heavy smoke, went toward the fire room, and made it to a window where the platform of Ladder 1 was located just as he ran out of air. The victim ran out of air and told his partner they needed to buddy breathe. The victim unclipped his regulator as his partner connected the buddy breather and all the partner’s air escaped through the victim’s SCBA. The victim transmitted a Mayday and activated his personal alert safety system (PASS). The firefighter also attempted to activate his PASS, called several Maydays prior to removing his mask, and began looking for an escape path. At some point, the victim vomited in his facepiece and removed it. The firefighter crawled down a hallway trying to open several doors unsuccessfully until he found a door he could open to the south stairwell. The firefighter placed his ax in the door and then returned to the victim. The firefighter grabbed the victim and pulled him to the south stairwell where he collapsed and the pair fell down a flight of stairs. The victim and the other firefighter were eventually located in the south stairwell by another officer who had exited the north stairwell and heard the victim’s PASS alarm sounding. Medic units transported the victim and the firefighter to the hospital.”
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On 7/28/2018 a mother and five children were killed in a Michigan motel fire near Benton Harbor. The fire started around 1:45 a.m. in a room on the first floor of the Cosmo Extended Living motel in Sodus Township. Firefighters found the woman and the children unresponsive on the second floor of the motel. After attempting CPR, paramedics transported them to Lakeland Medical Center where the victims passed away. “The Berrien County Sheriff's Department confirmed that all six died as the result of smoke inhalation. Twenty-seven rooms were occupied at the time of the fire and several of the occupants were taken to Lakeland Medical Center.”
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On 7/28/1945 a B-25, a US military plane, crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in heavy fog killing fourteen. The fuel exploded, filling the interior of the building with flames down to the 75th floor. “Completed in 1931, the Empire State Building, located at 350 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, is a 102-story Type 1 Fire Resistive reinforced concrete and steel frame structure. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet and stands a total of 1,454 feet tall, including its antenna. The structure was not equipped with fire sprinklers but depended upon the heavy steel reinforced masonry and protected steel construction, stairwell and elevator shaft enclosures, and limited utility voids between floors to check the spread of fire within the building… The B-25 Mitchell aircraft model that was involved in this incident was produced starting in 1941 by North American Aviation and is a medium-range bomber with two underwings mounted gasoline-powered radial piston engines. In combat trim, the crew of five included a pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, radio operator, and tail gunner. Having a maximum flight weight of 35,000 lbs., the plane had a cruising range of 1350 miles and a standard fuel capacity of 670 gallons of high-octane aviation gasoline… At 9:40 a.m., the aircraft crashed into the building between the 78th and 80th floors, making an 18-by-20-foot hole in the side of the building. One engine shot through the south side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block, dropping 900 feet and landing on the roof of a nearby building and causing a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio. The other engine and part of the landing gear fell down an elevator shaft. Upon impact, the plane’s fuel exploded, filling the interior of the building with flames down to the 75th floor and sending flames out of the hole the plane had ripped open in the building’s side. Other plane parts ended up embedded in and on top of nearby buildings. The other engine snapped an elevator cable while at least one woman was riding in the elevator car. The emergency auto brake saved the woman from crashing to the bottom, but the engine fell down the shaft and landed on top of it. Quick-thinking rescuers pulled the woman from the elevator, saving her life.”
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On 7/28/1907 a Memphis, Tennessee firefighter died “during the early stages of a major fire involving several commercial concerns, he was killed when he plunged more than 20 feet into an excavation below the buildings, after falling through a grating while running in an alleyway.”
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On 7/28/1914 a firefighter was killed and two were injured at the Concord, New Hampshire State Prison fire during a collapse.
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On 7/28/1937 a Boston, Massachusetts firefighter “died from injuries received on July 23, 1937. He suffered from the inhalation of smoke and gas at a fire at 68 Ormond Street, Dorchester, Box 354.”
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On 7/28/1939 five Civilian Conservation Corp firefighters died while working on the Rock Creek fire in Northern Nevada, after being overrun by the fire.
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On 7/28/1961 a Toledo, Ohio firefighter “died as a result of burns suffered at the Anthony Wayne Trail tanker fire, June 10, 1961. As a result of the accident that cost several lives, a bill was passed to prevent tandem trailers from carrying gasoline. As a result of this incident, four firefighters would die.”
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On 7/28/1975 an Ogallala, Nebraska firefighter “died from the injuries he sustained after being crushed by falling material while fighting a boxcar fire. He was attempting to open a door on the boxcar that had been loaded with particleboard when it fell on him.”
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On 7/28/1943 a British bombing raid during World War II on Hamburg, Germany virtually sets the city on fire, killing about 42,000.
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On 7/28/1903 a large four-story market house was destroyed by fire on Eighth Street in Wilmington, Delaware.
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On 7/28/1854 a dwelling fire claimed four lives in Chicopee, Massachusetts around 1:00 a.m. The house was occupied by two families.
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On 7/28/1976 an 8.2 earthquake killed around 240,000 in Tangshan China.
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On 7/28/1932 during the Great Depression a battle between unemployed war veterans (Bonus Marchers) and federal troops, four died.
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On 7/28/1868 the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States is one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.