Today in Fire History 9/3

On 9/3/1991 the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant fire killed twenty-five in Hamlet, North Carolina.? Twenty-five people were killed and fifty-four injured in a fire that trapped the occupants behind locked fire doors after a hydraulic line failure caused a fire. “The intense fire quickly spread products of combustion throughout the plant causing employees to search for available exits. Although many of the estimated 90 occupants escaped without incident, others found exterior doors unavailable and sought alternative means of escape. Not all of those who remained were able to be rescued, and many perished.” The plant never received a safety inspection. The owner was sentenced to 20 years in prison, of which he served only four years, and the company received the highest fines in the history of North Carolina. A professor at Temple University, Bryant Simon, described some of the failures that resulted in the loss of lives in?The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives. “The workers could not count on their local government to help them either. Desperate to increase employment in the struggling town, Hamlet’s leadership looked the other way as the processing plant flouted guidelines and rules to a shocking degree… The Hamlet fire was a predictable result of the food production industry’s antipathy toward oversight, and the hands-off approach taken by the U.S. government. Structural and conditional similarities to Imperial Food Products were replicated in factories throughout the country. By 1991, there was only one federal inspector for every 4,666 worksites across the country… Without government scrutiny, the responsibility to follow the law fell on the business owners, who—typified by the management of Imperial—rarely obliged. “If they actually abide by the law, they’re at a competitive disadvantage,” Simon says. “Deregulation and the lack of enforcement of laws is like a contagion.” By the ’80s, he writes, the system grew dependent on neglect, with businesses assuming no compliance officers would ever make a visit. More often than not, they were right… Just as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory employed mostly vulnerable, financially insecure immigrant women and girls, the Hamlet fire’s victims were the underprivileged. Simon doesn’t shy away from the intrinsic role that race, class, and gender played in the tragedy. Those who made decisions about Imperial’s safety protocols—the city, state, and federal officials—were removed from the experiences of the workers impacted by them. Of the 25 who died in the fire, 12 were African-American and 18 were women, many of whom were single mothers.”

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On 9/3/1884 a Detroit, Michigan firefighter “died of injuries he sustained on February 26, 1874, while operating at a fire.”

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On 9/3/1894 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died “while fighting a fire at a lumber yard on Throop Street. He drowned when he fell into Samson’s Slip. Firefighters on the fireboat Geyser heard him fall and immediately began search and rescue operations, but he drowned before he could be pulled from the water.”

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On 9/3/1938 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died as a result of injuries he sustained on August 31, 1938, when he fell down an elevator shaft while operating at a single-alarm fire at 20 East 50th Street.”

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On 9/3/1951 a Binghamton, New York firefighter “died while fighting a huge fire at the old State Armory Building on Washington Street, across from the Forum Theater. This was a million-dollar fire; units from the City of Binghamton as well as Johnson City and Endicott helped fight this large fire.”

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On 9/3/1963 two Bossier City, Louisiana firefighters died “while trying to rescue two city water department workers who were overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas inside an underground sewer lift station in the city's Shady Grove subdivision. The first firefighter lost his life on September 3, 1963, the day of the incident, and the second died two days later after both were exposed to lethal gasses inside the lift station. A third firefighter was also injured in the incident. Despite the heroic efforts of the three firefighters, the two water department workers who they were attempting to rescue lost their lives.”

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On 9/3/1965 a Chicago, IL firefighter died “while battling an extra-alarm fire at the Herman Hettler Lumber Company 2601 Elston Avenue. The fire started when gasoline being pumped into an underground 1,000-gallon storage tank caught fire, spreading flames to a three-story lumber storage building and several smaller lumber sheds. Because of a large number of combustible materials on-site, more than forty fire apparatus responded to the blaze, and the firefighters successfully contained the fire.”

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On 9/3/1967 a Union Township, New Jersey firefighter “died while operating at a fire in a welding shop.”

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On 9/3/1975 a Jacksonville, Florida firefighter died “at the scene of a kitchen fire on Lotus Road. After the fire had been knocked down, he took off his mask and went back inside to help with overhaul work. He then walked back outside and collapsed.”

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On 9/3/2004 a New Brunswick, New Jersey firefighter died at a multiple-family residential fire. “He arrived first, reported a working fire, and took command. Not seeing any occupants outside or leaving the structure, he entered the structure to alert residents to the fire. He was not wearing any personal protective clothing or equipment. He was banging on doors to alert residents of the fire when an explosion occurred. Thirteen adults and two children all escaped because of his actions. He was mortally burned in the explosion and ensuing fire. Arriving firefighters found him on the second-floor landing and removed him from the structure. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A homeless man who slept in the hallway of the building caused the fire. The man discarded a cigarette near some plastic shower curtains and a plastic container of gasoline. The curtains and the gasoline ignited, producing sufficient heat to cause 3 nearby propane cylinders to vent their contents. The accumulated propane gas is thought to be the source of the explosion that killed the firefighter.”

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On 9/3/2017 around 6:30 p.m., 200 firefighters fought a five-alarm fire in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The fire started inside a restaurant on the ground floor of a Tribeca building, 24 Murray Street, near Church Street, that quickly shot up through the roof, leaving eleven firefighters injured. Flames could be seen shooting out the roof and windows and huge plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky, and the acrid smell of smoke carried as far as Brooklyn, NY.

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On 9/3/2014 thirteen people were hurt, including several children, in a chemical explosion at a museum in Reno, Nevada, where presenters demonstrated a so-called smoke tornado caused the blast with a faulty mixture.

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On 9/3/1925 near Caldwell, Ohio the Airship Shenandoah crashed after it was caught in a violent updraft that exceeded the pressure limits of its helium gas bags killing the crew of fourteen.

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On 9/3/1891 the Attalla, Alabama conflagration destroyed several buildings. The fire started around 2:00 a.m.

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On 9/3/1876 a fire destroyed 600 Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec buildings that started in the western end of the city around 1:30 p.m.

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On 9/3/1870 the Calais, Maine conflagration started near the livery stable and damaged several buildings.

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On 9/3/1897 twelve miners died in a coal mine explosion near Glenwood Springs, Colorado at the Sunshine Coal Company.

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On 9/3/1891 the F.A. Reynolds & Company dynamite factory near White Pigeon, Michigan exploded killing sixteen. It was estimated that there were 20 tons of dynamite in the three-story brick building.

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On 9/3/1935 the "Labor Day Hurricane", passed through the Florida Keys and swept northwestward along the west coast to St. Petersburg and Tampa. More than 100 people died during the storm; the President ordered the Navy, Army, and Red Cross to assist.

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On 9/3/1777 the American flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, Delaware.

On 9/3/1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution.

On 9/3/1939 Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.