Today in Fire History 3/19
On 3/19/1896 insurance groups formed a committee that met in New York, New York with the stated purpose of standardizing the new and burgeoning market of fire sprinkler systems, which will later become the National Fire Protection Association. “The NFPA was formed in 1896 by a group of insurance firm representatives with the stated purpose of standardizing the new and burgeoning market of fire sprinkler systems. The scope of the NFPA's influence grew from sprinklers to include building electrical systems (another new and fast-growing technology), and then all aspects of building design and construction. Its original membership consisted of and was limited to, insurance underwriting firms. There was little representation from the industries the NFPA sought to regulate. This changed in 1904 to allow other industries and individuals to participate actively in the development of the standards promulgated by the NFPA. The first fire department to be represented in the NFPA was the New York City Fire Department in 1905.”
On 3/19/1958 a factory fire on the 3rd & 4th floor in a textile plant in New York, New York claimed the lives of twenty-four workers and injured fifteen others at the S.T.S. Textile Company & Monarch Underwear Company, 699 Broadway, after an explosion in a fabric treating oven shortly before 4:00 p.m. Panic contributed to the deaths, victims were piled top of each other, evidence of hysteria. The fire was controlled by over 200 firefighters and five alarms… “The fire occurs on the third floor of a seventy-five-year-old building with no sprinklers and inadequate fire escapes. An industrial oven explodes in a textile finishing shop. On the floor above, garment workers are unaware of the fire until an alarm goes off from the street, eight minutes later. The inadequately constructed floor collapsed, killing the workers. Their death spurs renewed outrage over the unsafe conditions in the city’s factories despite existing laws and regulations… “The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the New York City Fire Department sponsor a successful fire warden program, which will involve thousands of union members in monitoring conditions in their workplaces and in exposing fire hazards. The ILGWU also introduces workplace safety measures in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements.” “….Early in 1958…mass inspections by selected teams were made in the lower Manhattan loft building area, which is the greatest fire hazard area in New York City. In the course of this special effort, 7,544 occupancy inspections were made in 1,990 buildings. A total of 8,129 combustible violations were referred to other city departments. Summonses for serious fire safety violations were served on owners of 72 factories…. The inspection of these fire traps had been going on steadily for two years. This dreadful fire only emphasized the fact that if the Fire Department were several times its size and if it were to stay on the job continuously for two or more years, it could not possibly clean up all the fire hazards in this particular area. It must also be remembered that there are several other sections in the city where the same sad conditions prevailed”…“Accordingly, two things were done immediately. First, we had local legislation enacted tightening the fire laws. Second, and by far the more important, we organized a fire warden system in each of the thousands of garment and millinery plants. This was possible only through the active cooperation of the city’s top labor leaders. David Dubinsky, head of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which had lost 18 of its members in the Monarch fire, took the initiative in this movement. We have trained all these fire wardens, who now number 6,550, working in as many factories.”
On 3/19/1877 a Denver, Colorado firefighter was killed from the injuries he sustained after being caught by a falling wall.
On 3/19/1902 a Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighter drowned while operating at a fire aboard a steamer ship, “he was operating on an ice-covered dock on Governors Island in the New York Harbor. The Ship, the British Queen, was loading for Holland at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is not known how the fire started but it spread to other ships, oil barges & smaller vessels. Some of these ships, a burning mass, broke free and were floating south with the tide in the North River scorching piers along Manhattan’s waterfront. One ship landed on Governors Island and Fire Boat Seth Low responded. The company was operating on a dock that was not finished, the firefighters were handling a line of hose on the skeleton frame. One firefighter slipped on the iced cover girders into the water and was not noticed missing for several minutes. The strong tides carried him away, he drowned.”
On 3/19/1913 three Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada firefighters were all killed in a gas explosion.
On 3/19/1946 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died while fighting a basement fire in a residence at 7933 S. Avalon Avenue. He had left the basement and collapsed while he was bringing in another fire hose.
On 3/19/1955 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter died after collapsing while operating at a fire at 3716 Aspen Street.
On 3/19/1979 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “was operating on the roof of an apartment building when it gave way, he fell into the fiery apartment below. He was pulled from the burning apartment by fellow firefighters but not before receiving burns over 74% of his body.”
On 3/19/1982 a Petersburg, Virginia firefighter and a civilian were killed when a flashover and explosion destroyed a three-story frame apartment house with stores on the first floor. Firefighters were just setting up operations when the explosion took place. Over 20 other people were injured in the blast, some seriously.
On 3/19/1998 an incendiary fire in an occupied bulk retail store in Tempe, Arizona overwhelmed the inadequately designed sprinkler system, that destroyed 96 linear feet of rack and product display with a conventional fuel load around 4:00 p.m. There were no injuries or fatalities from this fire. The 100,000 ft2 one-story reinforced masonry structure (400’ X 250’ and ranged from 24’ to 29’ high) bulk retail store sold general home improvement merchandise. The area of origin was in a 12-foot-high double-row rack that contained lawn furniture, seat cushions, patio umbrellas, and plastic lawn chairs with an additional 3 feet of storage on the top level. Merchandise on the upper levels was on pallets that had been shrink-wrapped around four sides. Much of the material would be classified as expanded and unexpanded Group A plastic. The fire had traveled vertically along both the outside face of the rack and within the longitudinal flue space over the full height of the rack. Firefighters reported zero visibility; the smoke had filled the building from floor to ceiling. Sixty-six sprinklers activated over an area of 5,082 ft2, the flame impingement was limited to 1,500 ft2 and spread across a 10-foot aisle. The sprinkler system was designed to provide a water density of 0.495 GPM/ft2 over 2,000 ft2 to protect a Class IV commodity with a maximum storage height of 20’. The maximum number of sprinklers operating simultaneously in the design was 29 sprinklers.
On 3/19/1970 A suspicious fire was discovered by merchant police in the middle of the building just after 3:00 a.m. at Climatrol Industries, S. 20th & Oklahoma Streets, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a metal fabricating plant. The building was fully involved and destroyed. The exposed buildings were saved. The fire was brought under control in 3 hours.
On 3/19/1949 the 153-year-old 2-½ story wooden Hampton town hall on Beach Road Hampton, New Hampshire was destroyed by fire.
On 3/19/1930 the Gulf Refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania exploded, and fire destroyed over 70,000 gallons of oil.
On 3/19/1908 a landslide destroyed a gas regulator that results in an explosion and fire that killed two and damaged 8 buildings in Ben Avon, Pennsylvania.
On 3/19/1900 a downtown Chicago, Illinois explosion and fire destroyed a block of stores at North Avenue and Larrabee Street.
On 3/19/1896 the Providence, Rhode Island Masonic Building was destroyed by a 4:00 a.m. fire.
On 3/19/1970 the Maryland State Police completed its first medevac, transporting a patient involved in a motor vehicle collision from Falls Road at the Beltway, to the University of Maryland's hospital in Baltimore. In 1970, a total of 197 medical transport flights were made with an 88 percent survival rate. The maiden flight was performed by Cpl. Gary Moore and Trooper First Class Paul Benson started our nation's first airborne medical evacuation program that is still in continuous operation today.
On 3/19/2003 the war in Iraq began 90 minutes after the U.S.-imposed deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq
On 3/19/1831 the first U.S. bank, City Bank, was robbed in New York, New York,