If there was a significant fire or emergency that occurred 100 years ago in your department, or your department's 100th anniversary is coming up, please drop us a line for possible inclusion in "Rekindles" in an upcoming issue.
June 2, 1897: COLUMBIA, SC A fire broke out in the laundry room of the State Insane Asylum and spread quickly. Firemen were hard pressed to deal with the fast-moving fire and the many excited patients on the grounds. Two attendants, following their orders to allow no one back in the building, barred the fire chief and a scuffle broke out as he forced his way past the men. Firemen made a gallant stand and held the fire from extending.
June 2, 1897: KEYPORT, NJ Four different alarms of fire within an hour and a half sent a buzz through this sleepy little village. The first call was for fire in the stables of the Pavilion Hotel on Wharf Avenue. Firemen provided a quick knockdown of the blaze. Fifteen minutes later, an alarm was raised for the stables of the nearby Mansion House, which were found "all ablaze." They were no sooner done with this fire when another report of a barn on fire brought the firemen out again. This structure was a total loss. Shortly after this, a small fire was extinguished in the Calvary Methodist Church on Osborne Street.
June 3, 1897: ALEXANDRIA, VA Shortly after midnight, a fire was found in Bryan's Fertilizing Mill on the riverfront. The fire was battled for more than eight hours as the flames leaped from building to building. The first building lost was the engine house directly across from the mill. Also destroyed were the Brass Works, Boat Club, a coal yard, a laundry company and other buildings along a two-block stretch along the river.
June 6, 1897: SAN FRANCISCO A stiff breeze fanned the flames that broke out in the four-story building used by the Standard Biscuit Co. Firemen battled the fire and fought to stop its spread to nearby wood buildings, including the Southern Police Station. Companies were making a stand in an adjoining paint shop when the eastern wall collapsed, killing three firemen.
June 8, 1897: CHICAGO A worker dropped a match in a fireworks factory, causing an explosion and fire and starting a wild panic in the neighborhood. The building at West Van Buren and Halstead streets was suddenly the launching pad of rockets and missiles as the contents of the building filled the structure with flames and began to bombard the area with fireworks and building parts.
June 15, 1897: NEW YORK CITY Fire broke out in the main building of the U.S. Immigration Station on Ellis Island. The fire was discovered just after midnight and shortly afterwards FDNY fireboats arrived on the scene. The wooden building was filled with 191 immigrants who were quickly rushed to safety by night watchmen. Firemen battled the fire until daybreak and saved three-quarters of the immigration records.
June 19, 1897: IOWA CITY, IA The University of Iowa Library caught fire at 4 A.M. after being struck by lightning. Lycurgus "Kirk" Leek of Protection Engine & Hose Company 2, a volunteer unit of the Iowa City Fire Department, was killed on the second floor when the roof collapsed. His was the first line-of-duty death in the city and the second in Iowa.
June 21, 1897: BROOKLYN, NY A three-story brick building that covered nearly a square block of the Brooklyn Navy Yard caught fire in the early evening. The structure was filled with small arms, rapid-fire guns and torpedoes. Three alarms were struck, bringing nine engines, three trucks and two fireboats to the scene. While city firemen struggled to gain an adequate water source for their steamers, a fire crew from the navy yard came running up pulling an antiquated hand engine. With flames racing through the upper floors, 100 sailors were ordered into the ground floor and as fire blew out the windows on the upper floors, they carried out all the torpedoes. Firemen played hose streams from every direction and sailors took positions on rooftops with buckets of water. The fire was held to the original building.
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS: The Lennox, SD, Volunteer Fire Department marked its 100th anniversary on May 17, 1997 … The Winchester, IN, Fire Department was formed as the Winchester Volunteer Fire Company on June 2, 1897. In the wake of two nearly disastrous fires, 81 citizens petitioned the city council to form a volunteer fire company. The 20 members were equipped with a hook-and-ladder wagon and a bucket wagon … Central Hose Company 1 of Johnsonburg, PA, was formed on June 22, 1897, equipped with a hand pumper, 500 feet of hose and two rubber nozzles.
TIME CAPSULE
GENERAL SLOCUM FIRE: June 15, 1904
New York Harbor has been the scene of more than 2,000 shipwrecks. The most famous and deadliest of these was that of the steamboat General Slocum.
The large steamboat, 250 feet long and 70 feet wide, was constructed entirely of wood and was one of the city's biggest excursion boats. It disembarked from the recreation pier on 3rd Street and the East River filled with a Sunday-school group from St. Mark's Lutheran Church composed of about 565 women, 745 children, 50 men and her crew of 27. The ship left the pier for a day of sightseeing with a planned stop at a picnic grounds.
As the ship made its way up the river, smoke was seen coming from a cabin on the main deck. A fire apparently had started in small storeroom in the bow on a lower deck. The alarm was raised and crew members stretched a hoseline, only to have it crumble in their hands as water arrived. The captain turned the boat into the section of the river known as "Hell Gate" and continued up river.
As word spread onboard about the fire, people on the land could also see the smoke and notified the FDNY. The fireboat Zophar Mills set out after the burning boat and Engine Company 60 and Ladder Company 17 watched helplessly as the ship passed them at the foot of 138th Street in the Bronx. They chased the burning boat on land as it continued up stream.
With other boats blasting warnings and the fireboat chasing behind, the General Slocum steamed on, the wind whipping the flames into a frenzy. With the ship crashing down around them, the captain and first pilot finally beached the craft at North Brother Island. Rescues were performed by tugboats, fireboats, firemen and citizens in private boats along the doomed ship's course. Many people were saved as they jumped from the blazing steamer but 1,030 lives were lost to the disaster, including the young son of an FDNY fireman.
Paul Hashagen
Compiled by Paul Hashagen
