ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY While the entire nation mourns the loss of 19 Prescott, AZ Hotshot firefighters, we pause to remember more than 30 firefighters killed in three (3) separate incidents on this date in 1850, 1943 & 1953. Mendocino National Forest, CA (1953) - The Rattlesnake Fire was a wildfire started by an arsonist on July 9, 1953 in Grindstone Canyon in the Mendocino National Forest and burned over 1,300 acres before being extinguished on July 11. After battling the fire most of the day, it was thought to be under control, and so the men sat down for dinner. A wind direction change occurred while they were resting in what has come to be known as a killer weather phenomenon. The fire jumped lines, roared down the canyon, and caught the firefighters by surprise. Of the 24 person crew, 15 (One Forest Service employee and 14 volunteer firefighters from New Tribes Mission) were burned alive at about 10 PM as they tried to outrun the fire through the dense brush and steep terrain. The tragedy resulted in major changes to wild land fire training, firefighting safety standards, and overall awareness of how weather affects fire behavior. It has become a well-known firefighting textbook case. The following members of the New Tribes Mission FD perished in the fire. Allen Boddy, Sergio Coles, Benjamin Dinnel, Paul Gifford, Harold Griffis, Cecil Hitchcock, David Johnson, Robert Meiden, Darrel Noah, Howard Rowe, Raymond Sheridan, Daniel Short, Stanley Vote & Stanton Whitehouse. U.S. Forest Service member Robert F. Fowers also died in the fire. See full story; honoringheroes/2011/07/remembering-15-firefighters-rattlesnake-fire-in-1953/ Chicago, IL (1943) - On July 8 and 9, twin fires in a four-story manufacturing building on West Superior Street led to the deaths of ten Chicago firefighters. The Chicago Fire Department received the initial alarm around 8:30 PM on July 8, 1943, reporting that a fire had broken out on the second story of the building. The fire was soon extinguished and the firefighters returned to their stations. No firefighters remained on scene to patrol the area due to a wartime personnel shortage. Several hours later, a second fire was discovered on the fourth floor of the building, and at 1:59 AM on July 9, 1943, the second alarm was received by the CFD. Under the command of White, firefighters again entered the burning building with hose lines and were stationed on the stairwell landings. White soon realized that the building was on the verge of collapsing and ordered the firefighters to evacuate the building, but the roof collapsed before they could escape. The firefighters on the landings fell with the stairs, and many of them ended up trapped in the basement by timber, bricks, and other debris. Following are some of the CFD members that perished. Captain Barcal , Firefighter’s Harry Weinel, Robert Walsh, Richard Jablonski, Joseph Strenski and Arthur W. Hampel. See full story; fsi.illinois.edu/content/library/iflodd/search/Firefighter.cfm?ID=357 Philadelphia, PA (1850) - The first great fire in Philadelphia’s history began in the afternoon of July 9, 1850, at a warehouse on the east side of Water Street between Vine and Race Streets, near the Vine Street Wharf on the Delaware River. Three hundred and sixty-seven buildings were reduced to ashes in some 18 acres. Some accounts have the number at 8 and some 11 Firefighters, which were killed when collapsing walls buried two fire engines. See full story; hiddencityphila.org/2011/10/fire-on-waterfront/
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:01:48 +0000
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