The Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire was a fire that began on December 3, 1999, in Worcester, Massachusetts. It started when two homeless and mentally disabled people, Thomas Levesque and Julie Ann Barnes, who were living inside the warehouse, knocked over a candle after an argument earlier in the afternoon. Both fled without reporting the fire to emergency services.[1] The structure was located five blocks east of the Worcester central business district, near the Union Station train station and adjacent to Interstate highway 290. The fire would eventually grow to five-alarm status and rage for six days before being brought under control. Firefighting companies from the city and from neighboring towns were called to respond. Six Worcester firefighters died in the fire. Reports that homeless people were possibly inside the engulfed warehouse caused fire-rescue personnel to search the six-story building. The searchers task was made extremely difficult by the large size of the buildings interior, the layout which was a maze of corridors and meat lockers, many with identical flush-handle doors, and the highly flammable composition of its insulation.[1] Nearly a century old, the interior walls had been progressively covered with various forms of insulating materials, including cork impregnated with tar, polystyrene foam, and polyurethane foam, to a thickness of 18 inches. Once ignited, the large amount of fuel, fed initially by the large volume of air in the building, became virtually inextinguishable. The six-story buildings exterior walls were constructed of approximately 18 inches of brick and mortar, with no windows above the second floor.[1] The lack of available windows prevented firefighting personnel from making an accurate initial assessment of the fire. Initial breaching of lower-floor doors, combined with venting the building by smashing an elevator-shaft roof skylight, effectively turned the building into a huge chimney. With the fire rapidly accelerating out of control, rescue teams facing near-zero visibility became lost with available breathing air depleted. Despite repeated radio calls for help, along with activation of audible location alarms, six firefighters, who have since become known as the Worcester 6, perished in the blaze.[2] It took eight days to find and recover the remains of the six men.[1] usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-134.pdf
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 10:38:00 +0000