Today in Fire History 9/4

On 9/4/1894 the first fog nozzle for fighting fires was patented. A fog nozzle breaks water flowing through it into “tiny” droplets, creating more surface area absorbing the heat and creating steam. The A. J. Morse company made a brass 2-?” “fireboat type nozzle and stand” with patent dates of Aug. 2, 1891, July 31, 1894, and Sept. 4, 1894. Some sources suggest “the first United States patent for a fog nozzle was granted to Dr. John Oyston in 1863. During the late 1800s and continuing through the turn of the century, various articles appeared in fire service literature extolling the merits of spray streams. One of the earliest such articles, entitled “Extinguishing Fires,” was written by Oyston himself. It was originally published in Oyston’s local newspaper but was reprinted in the March 16, 1878, edition of the National Fireman’s Journal (known today as Fire Engineering). Significant research in fire behavior and the use of spray streams for interior fire attacks began in the United Kingdom and several Western European countries during the 1920s, this research continues to this day. In the mid-1930s, Elkhart Brass introduced the first production periphery jet fog nozzle to the American fire service. Known as the “Mystery” nozzle, it was based on a nozzle designed by the Mystery Nozzle Company in Hamburg, Germany, some years before. The United States Navy and Coast Guard used a combination fog/solid-stream nozzle during World War II, although its exact date of issue may predate the war by several years. Manufactured by the Rockwood Sprinkler Company, and known as an “all-purpose” nozzle, it was available for both 1-? inch and 2-? inch hoses and had a three-position shutoff that could produce both an impinging jet fog stream and a solid fire stream. It could also be fitted with a variety of extension applicators. It is still in limited use today by the Navy as well as several fire departments… What happened in 1950 that so radically changed fire suppression tactics? The late Chief Lloyd Layman of Parkersburg, West Virginia, presented a paper entitled “Little Drops of Water” at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Memphis, Tennessee, and in the process stood the fire service on its collective head. In his paper, Layman introduced what he termed the indirect method of attack to suppress interior building fires using the tremendous heat-absorbing properties of expanding and condensing steam, produced in great quantities by fog (spray) streams. Most of the theory and methodology of indirect fire attack were based on the Coast Guard experiments (Layman was in charge of the Coast Guard’s wartime firefighting school at Fort McHenry), as well as additional testing conducted jointly by the U.S. Navy and other agencies in San Francisco under the project name “Operation Phobos.” Layman continued his experiments after he returned to his position as fire chief in Parkersburg, where he began in earnest applying the indirect method of attack to building fires.”

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On 9/4/1878 five Omaha, Nebraska firefighters “died from the injuries they sustained after being caught in a collapse at the Grand Central Hotel fire, at 14th and Farnum Street.” “The Grand Central Hotel was built from 1871 to 1873. “It was a magnificent five-story brick structure, 132 X 132 feet, square, and cost $300,000. After serving its purpose for five years, it went up in flames. At four minutes past seven o'clock (7:04 p.m.), men passing down Farnam Street heard an explosion in the neighborhood of the hotel building. Several stopped and ventured surmises as to the cause, some believing it to be a fire alarm. A moment later fire was seen issuing from various parts of the upper floor, and the cry of "fire" rang out, the bells joining in the chorus. The engines came promptly to the scratch, and sparks and cinders were by this time raining down from the roof. At this moment the scenes in and about the burning building baffled description. Firefighters, hose, and streams of water were indescribably mingled; the first floor was crowded with a vast throng of men, many of them bareheaded and in their shirt sleeves, all talking, shouting, and offering advice, above which the hoarse calls of firefight could be heard, creating pandemonium of discord, no pen can describe. At 8 o'clock the fire had penetrated the mansard roof on the east side, and notwithstanding every exertion was made to obtain control of the elements, the building was an hour later an utter wreck. At that hour the entire roof had fallen in, and masses of tin roofing, burning wood, and debris of every conceivable nature, fell to the pavement, making the work of saving the surrounding property dangerous in the extreme. The fire had worked west, threatening the destruction of the Herald Building, and Farnam Street presented a picture of destruction and ruin no human hand can trace, with men and women running hither and yon in vain efforts to save portable property…At this point, the Council Bluffs department arrived by special train, and horses were pressed into the service to bring their apparatus from the Union Depot. Upon reaching the conflagration the "boys" fell in with a will, bringing to the aid of their muscle, intelligence, and a thorough knowledge of the work to be done, which inspired them as also the home force, to renew efforts and deeds of daring of the most thrilling character. The flames at this time were particularly fierce at the southeast corner of the hotel building, and here half a dozen men were suddenly seen through the blinding smoke at the windows of the third floor. It was thought they were cut off from escape and would certainly meet with a terrible death. But soon the fact became apparent that they were there for a purpose; a ladder was elevated immediately beneath them, a flood of water turned in upon the floor and a mastery of the flames at once obtained. It was feared in this connection that the water supply would run out, but stationary engines at different cisterns in the vicinity kept up the streams and prevented this additional calamity…At daylight, on Thursday morning the fire had been extinguished, but not before it had done its work. The hotel was totally destroyed, hardly a fragment of the woodwork in the entire building remaining unburned. Those firefighters who were not too exhausted remained to work the engines. The Herald Building remained intact, but nonetheless uninhabitable, and the adjoining premises were similarly left…In addition to the horrors of the night, accidents were numerous, and in many instances proved fatal in their effects. Mr. A. S. Hartray fell from the fourth floor to the first, and was picked up in a dying condition; Joseph Sheeley was struck by a beam and seriously injured. Shortly after midnight, several members of Engine Company No. 3, were caught in the lower part of the building by a falling wall. Two firefighters escaped, but three remained under the debris. The next morning work was commenced for the recovery of their bodies. A constant stream had been playing upon the spot under which they were buried, and when cool enough a company with pickaxes and shovels entered upon it. A blackened trunk of one of the unfortunates was first found and in close proximity to another, and the hip bones and pelvis of still another. A crowd witnessed the operation and looked on with horror as these dreadful relics were removed to Jacob's undertaking rooms. The work was continued, and later another body was unearthed, and identified by the stud and collar button in his shirt to be that of William McNamara, engineer of the Grand Central.”

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On 9/4/1887 the Royal Theatre fire in Exeter, England, United Kingdom left 187 dead also called the Theatre Royal. The theater had a capacity of 1,500 occupants. On the opening of a romantic comedy, Romany Rye, with an audience of 800, a gas flame ignited drapes in the fly section of the stage, as the flames spread through the building panic broke out. Many of the victims were from the upper gallery and could not escape because of poorly designed exits; other victims were suffocated or crushed. Parliament drafted legislation for stringent safety precautions in all British theatres, including the fireproof safety curtain.

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On 9/4/1970 a San Francisco, California firefighter “died while overhauling a fire.”

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On 9/4/1972 a Saint Paul, Minnesota firefighter “collapsed and died fighting a four-alarm arson fire in old McKinley School, at Carroll & Mackubin. Carbon monoxide poisoning contributed to his death.”

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On 9/4/2010 a Lorraine Green Garden, Kansas firefighter “died after exposure to an anhydrous ammonia leak at a local grain elevator on the evening of September 3, 2010. He died at his home in the early hours of September 4, 2010, of an apparent heart attack.”

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On 9/4/1921 two stores and seven homes were destroyed by fire in Wentworth, New Hampshire.

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On 9/4/1908 the Rawhide, Nevada conflagration left more than 3,000 homeless from the fire that started around 9:00 a.m. in the doctor’s office and drug store building.

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On 9/4/1884 in Marathon, New York a large fire destroyed a Hazen business block around 11:00 p.m. on the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad that started in a three-story wooden structure from a chimney.

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On 9/4/1882 a downtown Aurora, Indiana block, was destroyed by a fire that originated on Bridgeway Street in the chair factory.

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On 9/4/1895 a building under construction at the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois collapsed trapping several workers.