Today in Fire History 8/27

On 8/27/1909 on the Florida East Coast Railway, 700 pounds of dynamite exploded killing twelve and injuring several others in Boca Chica, Florida around noon. In “Boca Chica is twelve miles from Key West, on the Florida East Coast Railway, twelve men are dead, five probably fatally injured, and at least a dozen others are suffering from less serious injuries. The explosion was caused by a member of the railroad construction force carelessly throwing a lighted cigarette into a box of fuses. Nine of the workers met instant death, and the tenth died while being brought to the hospital. The men were hurled into the air and the bodies of the dead were mangled almost beyond recognition, arms and legs being torn from the bodies of some, while the faces of others were mere masses of flesh. When the explosion occurred the fifteen men were standing in water four feet deep and directly beneath them was the 700 pounds of dynamite, ready for the blast when the men should stop work for dinner. According to one of the wounded, a workman - one of the nine to meet instant death - threw a lighted cigarette to one side, not noticing that it fell into the box containing the fuses which were connected with the heavy charges of explosives beneath them. A few seconds later the men, water, mud, and tons of dirt were thrown seventy to ninety feet in the air. Tugs at once brought the dead and the more seriously wounded to this city, the latter being placed in the Louise Maloney Hospital. Those less seriously injured were placed on Stock Island, opposite Boca Chica, and will be brought to Key West later. Most of the victims of the explosion arrived here from New York last Sunday. About fifty men were at work, all close together when the box of fuses was discovered ablaze, and, had it not been for the sounding of the alarm by the dredge Manteo, it is doubtful if a third of the men would have escaped with their lives.”

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On 8/27/1867 a Manhattan, New York ?Metropolitan Fire Department?(MFD) firefighter “was killed when he fell 65 feet to the ground from a roof while operating at a fire.” The Metropolitan Fire Department?(MFD) was replaced by the Fire Department City of New York?(FDNY) in 1870.

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On 8/27/1916 two Milwaukee, Wisconsin firefighters died at “the Waltham Piano Factory fire at 1st and Becker Streets. The two firefighters grabbed lanterns and led a group of firefighters to the second floor to start venting. Suddenly, the lanterns went out and the two men began to stumble around. One made it back downstairs where he collapsed into the arms of a firefighter, but one had not come back down. In an instant, a firefighter grabbed a handlight and went in after the missing firefighter. Other firefighters followed almost immediately, but their way became blocked by an automatic fire door that closed, trapping the two firefighters in heavy smoke on the second floor. A firefighter wearing an early smoke mask was finally able to pry the door open with an ax and started to enter the room but then stumbled over something on the floor. There he found the two firefighters lying in each other's arms, both dead of smoke inhalation. Apparently, one firefighter had located his unconscious comrade and dragged him down the stairs to where the closed fire door blocked their exit. The fire went to two alarms.”

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On 8/27/1933 four What Cheer, Iowa firefighters “died as a result of the injuries they sustained while operating at a fire at the What Cheer Meat Market after an explosion occurred.”

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On 8/27/1947 a New Bedford, Maine firefighter “died while operating at a fire in the Sacred Heart Home.”

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On 8/27/1956 a Portland, Maine firefighter died while fighting a residential fire. “While removing paint from a house on Highland Street, a painter caused a stubborn two-alarm dwelling fire. The members of Engine 6 were working on the second floor when a firefighter stated that he needed air. As he stepped outside the house, he suddenly collapsed and died. The cause of death was determined as “heart ailment aggravated by smoke inhalation and asphyxia”.”

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On 8/27/1985 three firefighters were killed fighting a silo fire in Chippewa Township, Ohio.? The three firefighters of the Marshallville Ohio Fire Department were killed when a burning agricultural silo exploded. The firefighters were spraying water onto the fire from the top of the silo at the time of the explosion. The blast lifted the concrete roof off of the silo causing two firefighters to fall 80 feet to the ground while one firefighter was tossed into the silo. All three firefighters died from their injuries. Another three firefighters received injuries including one firefighter who received a broken leg after being hit by a piece of the concrete roof.

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On 8/27/1994 a Hudson Falls, New York firefighter died at a three-story hotel. “Assigned to search for and rescue occupants on the second floor, two firefighters successfully evacuated several victims while attempts to extinguish the fire were initiated below them. Upon their return to continue the search, conditions quickly changed from a light haze of smoke to black smoke with high heat. The firefighter and his partner became separated in their attempt to locate the stairwell and get out of the building. The other firefighter made several efforts to locate the missing firefighter but was forced to retreat due to untenable conditions. Several rescue efforts were made but heavy fire conditions eventually forced the evacuation of all fire personnel to defensive positions as the entire structure burned. The missing firefighter’s body was recovered the following day. The fire was incendiary.”

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On 8/27/1996 a South Portland, Maine firefighter died when “firefighters found heavy fire and numerous explosions occurring in a welding plant. An area within a one-mile radius was evacuated due to the four-alarm fire impinging on several, large oxygen and liquid nitrogen storage tanks. The firefighter ordered the members of his company, including his three volunteer firefighter children, to take up a defensive position behind their rig and play a cooling water stream onto the exposed storage tanks. As he turned to walk toward Engine 1, a large explosion occurred behind him and he collapsed to the street, in full arrest.”

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On 8/27/2006 two Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighters “died while operating a working fire in a convenience store, 99-cent store, at 1575 Walton Avenue. The two firefighters and other firefighters advanced a second 2-?-inch attack line into the structure to support extinguishment operations. A collapse occurred involving an area on the first floor of the structure. Both firefighters fell into the basement. One was entrapped by the collapse debris, and the other firefighter was encapsulated in the collapse debris. Other firefighters were caught in the collapse area as well. Firefighters were able to remove the members trapped in the upper part of the collapsed area. It took an hour to remove the last of these members. During that time, other members breached holes into the area from an adjoining cellar. These members found the entrapped firefighter approximately 15 minutes after entering the collapsed area. He was conscious when reached and he told firefighters that his nozzleman, the other firefighter, was trapped under him. The extrication of the first firefighter took more than 45 minutes. He was in respiratory arrest when he was removed from the structure. One to two minutes after the first firefighter was removed, rescuers found the second firefighter in the debris. It took approximately 20 minutes to extricate him. The second firefighter died from asphyxia due to compression of the chest. The first firefighter died of positional asphyxia and aspiration of blood.”

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On 8/27/2021 a “large fire consumed a residential skyscraper in China's city of Dalian. The fire started around 4:00 p.m. in a 19th-floor housing unit before spreading through other levels of the 31-story building. Despite efforts by the owner and neighbors to put it out, little could be done to prevent flames from spreading and reaching the upper levels.

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On 8/27/2019 the Greater Bible Way Temple,1461 North 52nd Street, West Philadelphia a multi-alarm fire caused parts of the building to collapse. “A 115-year-old Gothic-style church was destroyed in a spectacular three-alarm blaze on the afternoon of August 27, 2019, in West Philadelphia. The fire erupted at the Greater Bible Way Temple at the corner of Warren Street in the Parkside section of the city. Firefighters were called to the church at 2:50 p.m. and arrived in less than three minutes to find the roof of the building to be heavily involved in flames. Firefighters were unable to fight the fire in the interior because of the level of fire involvement. As the incident escalated to three alarms, more than 100 firefighters and 30 to 40 pieces of apparatus were on the scene as multiple master streams were employed.

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On 8/27/2015 a food truck exploded just after 8:30 a.m. outside of a home in a southwest neighborhood in Miami-Dade County, Florida at 1970 SW 57th Place.? The explosion was caused by a propane tank; “debris, including a tire and roofing, was spread across the street after the blast.” No injuries were reported. “The 20-year-old man who owns the Latin food truck told a local news reporter that he saved up his money to purchase the truck and start his own business… Nunez said the blast will cost him about $15,000 in damage. He said he did not have insurance on the truck.”

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On 8/27/1983 a Harriman, Tennessee apartment house fire killed three and injured six; during the second fire in five hours that broke out in a three-story brick 61-year-old, 14-unit apartment house around 5:05 a.m. and started in a laundry room.

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On 8/27/1922 a gold quartz mine fire killed forty-seven in Jackson, California.

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On 8/27/1917 a barn fire killed a man and thirty-seven horses in Lakota, North Dakota.

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On 8/27-28/1893 the Sea Islands Hurricane killed 1,000 – 2,500 in Charleston South Carolina; the storm struck at high tide pushing an enormous storm surge ahead of it submerging whole islands with reported winds at 125 mph and leaving an estimated 20,000-30,000 homeless.

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On 8/27/1979 Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed when Irish Republican Army terrorists detonated a 50-pound bomb hidden on his fishing vessel.

On 8/27/1973 in Union City, Tennessee an amusement park ride accident killed a 13 y/o boy and injured eight others.

8/27/1908 President Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on a farm near Stonewall, Texas?

On 8/27/1883 the Volcano Krakatau (also called Krakatoa) erupted killing 36,000, on the uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia.

On 8/27/1776 the American Revolution Battle of Brooklyn was fought.