NEW YORK CITY: JUNE 1, 1906 – The Broadway branch of the subway was the site of a smoky fire that destroyed four subway cars during the evening rush hour. Flames were discovered among empty cars standing on the middle tracks between 107th and 108th streets and spread quickly. Arriving fire companies were faced with dense smoke pumping through the underground tunnels as they descended to battle the blaze. Above ground, thousand of passengers were sent from the subway to seek another way home. Below ground, firemen faced several major obstacles in the blinding smoke including locked gates and long hose stretches. Scaling ladders were used to gain access through grating in the sidewalks, hoselines were lowered down and a dozen overcome firemen were carried up from below.
JERSEY CITY, NJ: JUNE 1, 1906 – The department and the commissioners built a new firehouse for an apparatus they had recently purchased. Upon completion of the building it was realized the truck was too long for the Irving Street fire station. The street is thirty feet wide and the truck is sixty feet long. Unable to negotiate the needed turning radius the truck was sent to the quarters of Engine 14 on Lincoln Street and the pumper relocated to the new station. Problem solved.
BOSTON, MA: JUNE 6, 1906 – The elevated power cables at the Boylston Street subway station short-circuited, causing an explosion that filled the tunnel with smoke and disrupted power to the trains. Chief Muellen led a team of firemen towards the blaze and when the stream was directed at the fire another explosion occurred severely shocking the hose team. Several manholes exploded before things could be brought under control.
BALTIMORE, MD: JUNE 13, 1906 – At least three lives were lost and more than $750,000 worth of property was damaged or destroyed by a fire in the Savannah Pier of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company. Six barges loaded with cotton and resin burned and extended to the SS Essex and threatened the entire waterfront.
NICOLET, QUEBEC: JUNE 21, 1906 – A fire broke out in the old parish church and was quickly beyond the control of the local fire brigade. Mutual aid was requested to St. Hyacinthe as flames extended to the rectory, the convent and the new stone cathedral. More than 300 nuns were left homeless as the fire leaped from building to building.
PASADENA, CA: JUNE 24, 1906 – An automobile traveling at more than 60 mph went out of control on Colorado Street before rolling over and bursting into flames as the gas tank ruptured. A woman occupant was trapped and fatally burned, the chauffeur received severe burns and two other passengers were injured.
Paul Hashagen, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is a retired FDNY firefighter who was assigned to Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan. He is also an ex-chief of the Freeport, NY, Fire Department. Hashagen is the author of FDNY 1865-2000: Millennium Book, a history of the New York City Fire Department, and other fire service history books.
