Today in Fire Service 2/22

On 2/22/1902 a New York, New York hotel fire killed sixteen and injured about fifty at Park Avenue, between Thirty-Second and Thirty-Third Streets in Manhattan. “Most of the dead were guests with rooms on the upper stories of the hotel or on the fifth floor, which had the greatest damage. It is explained that five minutes after the fire started in the hotel the whole elevator shaft and the corridors opening on it were a mass of flames and that little or no opportunity was afforded to the imperiled guests to make their way out. The first three stories were untouched by the fire.”

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On 2/22/1922 a Manitowoc, Wisconsin firefighter “died after he was overcome by smoke while fighting a fire at the meat market, grocery store, and residence at 2205 Marshall Street, around midnight. He died from the effects without regaining consciousness. With other members of the company, he responded to the alarm and went into the smoke-filled room to relieve one of the other men. He wore his mask and was fully dressed and equipped to fight the fire. Later he was missed and when the other firefighters searched for him, he was found lying on the floor in the room…Death was due to suffocation. The fire was due to an electric light wire running into the place that became crossed with a power current wire. The fire started in a closet on the second floor where the switches are located. The fire alarm and telephone system were out of order necessitating a trip to Fire Station Number 2 to turn in the alarm and the delay gave the blaze a big start. When the department arrived on the scene, they found the house and store filled with heavy smoke.”

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On 2/22/1928 an Atlanta, Georgia firefighter “died while directing operations at a small fire in a dwelling at 567 Formwalt Street, SW. He became severely overcome by smoke and gases and collapsed.”

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On 2/22/1940 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died while fighting a fire at the Lamkin Leather Company at 1718 North Damen Avenue. “The fire started when a pot of wax boiled over and spread flames to containers of resin that then exploded. He was overcome by smoke and chemical fumes while on the third floor of the building and collapsed. He was transported to Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.”

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On 2/22/1960 three Saint Louis, Missouri firefighters “died while fighting a fire in a downtown three-story building, the building collapsed resulting in their deaths.”

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On 2/22/1969 a Bayonne, New Jersey firefighter died after arriving at a working dwelling fire, the members of Engine Company 7 were advised that a woman was trapped in her top-floor apartment. The members of the company made five attempts to reach the woman but were pushed back each time by heavy heat and smoke. Later, as the members of Engine 7 were picking up their equipment, he suffered a fatal heart attack.”

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On 2/22/2008 nine firefighters were injured during a smoke explosion at a restaurant fire in the historic town of Durango, Colorado. “At 1:40 p.m. dispatch reported visible smoke and flames through the roof of a commercial structure. At 1:44 police arrived and began evacuating the restaurant and the adjoining retail store. The restaurant was part of a block-long row of adjoining structures. Over the next 25 minutes, three engines, two ladder trucks, and 24 fire department members arrived on the scene including the injured firefighters. The firefighters who were operating on the roof at the time of the explosion reported that the roof deck was lifted several feet by the pressure of the blast. The fire structure was part of a late 1890s building - a one-story Type III Ordinary construction, high ceiling, non-sprinklered commercial structure, constructed of brick and mortar walls located on the 700 block of Main Avenue. The roof was supported by timber beams and a wooden plank, gradually sloped (approximately 6 inches per 12-foot pitch) roof deck covered with tin and a tar and pea gravel mixture. The building’s front was brick with large plate glass windows and a parapet wall covered with a wooden fa?ade. Other adjoining buildings were of similar construction and had been completed by 1905.”

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On 2/22/2014 a Columbia, Missouri firefighter died “while working to evacuate students from a university residence apartment building, he died of injuries sustained when he became entangled in debris after the collapse of a portion of the building's elevated walkway.” “Building 707 was a two-story Type V Wood Frame construction brick veneer structure with a flat roof. Building 707 had six apartments on the second floor and six apartments on the first floor, which were all accessible from the outside. Stairwells were located on Side Bravo and Side Delta, and both led to a concrete walkway that provided access to the apartments on the second floor. The second-floor walkway provided overhead coverage to the first-floor apartment doors. There was no roof above the second-floor walkway.”

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On 2/22/1973 a gas explosion killed people five and injured twenty-two others when workers installing a sewer disturbed a gas line causing an explosion that leveled an apartment building in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania 10 miles south of Allentown.

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On 2/22/1973 a leaking gas pumping station near Elroy, Texas explosion killed four people and seriously burned four others shortly before midnight.

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On 2/22/1961 a fire killed twenty-four people at the Madrid Spectacle Frame Company in Madrid, Spain.

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On 2/22/1957 a Mount Airy, North Carolina school fire killed one and injured many others (about 30) in the one-story brick 14-classroom elementary school with “400 terrified youngsters scrambled out of windows or dashed through doors as a lightning-fast fire raged through their school.” “Actor Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, and is the town believed to have been the basis for Mayberry, the setting of The Andy Griffith Show an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968.”

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On 2/22/1955 the Waterville (Maine) Prep School was destroyed by fire when it “swept through 135-year-old Coburn Classical Institute's classroom building, destroying the three-story brick structure, scholastic records, and equipment.”

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On 2/22/1937 a mine explosion in Quincy, ?California killed six and injured five miners when a powder train was rammed by a speeding ore car 700 feet underground.

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On 2/22/1922 the “shouts of “FIRE” rang through the streets of downtown Mount Dora, Florida. Flames were bursting from a building on the east side of Donnelly Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. The townspeople quickly formed a bucket brigade to try and disburse the fire. The Eustis Fire Department was called and ran a hose from Lake Dora, but it was too late to save several wood-structured buildings. The 'Fire of 1922' led to the creation of a fire department and fire hydrants in the town. Immediately behind the buildings that burned, a small building was constructed to house the first fire department and its equipment.”

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On 2/22/2022 former US Fire Administrator, Florida State Fire Marshal, and Oregon State Fire Marshal, Olin L. Greene passed away this date in Tallahassee, Florida. Olin was born on January 15, 1937, and in 1955 graduated from Miami Edison High School. After Mr. Greene attended the University of Miami and Georgia Tech, he began his career as a firefighter with the City of Miami in 1959. His intelligence and passion for fire safety were immediately recognized and rewarded. He was promoted to the Miami Fire Prevention Bureau to learn the fire codes and later advanced to become a Deputy State Fire Marshal in South Florida. In 1973, he was appointed as the first Director of the Division of State Fire Marshal Office located in Tallahassee. In 1983, Chief Greene moved to Oregon where he also served as State Fire Marshal for six years, and in 1989 the White House called. President George H.W. Bush asked Olin to serve as his U.S. Fire Administrator (USAF). He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in 1990 becoming the first state fire marshal ever to hold our nation's highest fire safety position. He served our country with distinction and a steady hand, helping to guide it through several natural disasters and spearheading the passage of landmark fire safety legislation through Congress. When President Bush left office, Olin stepped down from USFA and joined the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). He spent 15 years there as a regional manager with responsibility for 26 states. In 2008, the National Association of Fire Marshals (NASFM) established the ‘Olin Greene Outstanding Fire Prevention Service Award’ and Olin was honored as its first recipient. He was also the first state fire marshal to serve in two states - Florida and Oregon. Chief Greene will be deeply missed for his friendship, professional knowledge, and the wealth of historical fire knowledge that he possessed.

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On 2/22/1732 President George Washington was born in Wakefield, Westmoreland County, Virginia.

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On 2/22/1819 U.S. Secretary of State (future President) John Quincy Adams and Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis signed the Florida Purchase Treaty. Spain agreed to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States. “Formal U.S. occupation began in 1821, and General Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812, was appointed military governor. Florida was organized as a U.S. territory in 1822 and was admitted into the Union as a slave state in 1845.”