ARUNDEL BURNING The Bridge to Parkway – Fire Service memories of an Industrial Park and Vicinity Part I of II Early one sunny Saturday morning in April, 1967, I was driving a ’65 Chevrolet sedan that served as my school’s drivers education instruction vehicle. I was headed north on Ridge Road near the Harmans/Dorsey area of northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Mr. James Starcher, an Andover High School shop teacher and Driver’s Ed instructor, was riding shot-gun. The chain-smoking, tall and slender Starcher, possessed a gentle “Abe Lincoln” style personality and was well liked by everyone. There were three other students in the car also, but I don’t recall their names. As I stopped the car for the red blinking light at the intersection of Ridge and Dorsey roads, I waited. Mr. Starcher turned, looked at me and asked, “Joe, what are you waiting for?” I said, “Mr. Starcher, I’m waiting for the light to turn green.” Everyone laughed and Starcher explained to me that the law requires drivers to treat a red blinking light like a stop sign; and to stop then to proceed when safe to do so. Now a little embarrassed and feeling a little dumb, I said, “Ahhhh ok.” Starcher went on, he said, “Joe, when the traffic is clear make a left and head down to Race Road,” which I did. I remember driving along Dorsey Road and passing under the Baltimore-Washington Parkway stone-covered-arched bridge. On the right side of the road, I quickly noticed two or three very small two-story wood-frame gray-painted-clapboard covered houses. To the best of my knowledge, these structures were most likely constructed well before the turn of the century. I remembered seeing the dilapidated structures years before when my Uncle Raymond Clark used to take me to the stock car races at the Dorsey Speedway during the early ‘60s. After making a right-hand turn onto to Race Road from Dorsey Road, I drove the vehicle in a northerly direction passing homes on both sides of the road. Driving a bit further, I was amazed at the appearance of a newly constructed train bridge that spanned over the road. Straw was still covering the newly seeded-grass that was planted around the concrete trestles supporting steel girders still in need of paint. I don’t remember any railroad insignia signage attached to the girder as on other railroad bridges. I don’t know why, but I have always loved trains and train bridges. Maybe it has something to do with my interest in Christmas train gardens as a kid and/or hanging out at the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge that crosses the Patapsco River near Elkridge during my pre-teen years. The bridges have always fascinated me and still do. But to see a train bridge and a newly constructed one at that, in the middle of a wooded, rural section of the county, really peaked my curiosity. Where would a train come from and where would it go? We continued on with the drivers Ed instruction. (Oh, and I did pass the driving course!) A couple of weeks later, as a young rookie volunteer firefighter, I responded to the new Parkway Industrial Park as part of a crew with Engine 321 from the Linthicum Fire Station. The industrial park was located on Parkway Drive just north of Dorsey Road and east of Race Road. Company #32 (Linthicum) responded, 2nd due, with Company #29 (Jessup) for a “water flow” alarm at the General Motor’s (GM) Parts Distribution Warehouse. At the time, I had no idea what a “waterflow alarm” was, but now the railroad track/bridge issue that I was concerned with earlier made sense. Standing on the tailboard of Engine 321, I had a good view of the park. As the engine made its way over the newly paved asphalt on Parkway Drive, I could see spur tracks running to the few newly constructed buildings and over parcels of land that were not yet developed. I also observed some train boxcars nestled next to the GM Warehouse. Looking west along the railroad cut, I could actually see the track running across the Race Road bridge. The track was a spur for the new industrial park connected with the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad main tracks that ran from Baltimore to Washington D.C. The spur switched out from the double set of northbound – southbound tracks near Elkridge. The 222 acre Parkway Industrial Park was the dream of businessman and developer 57-year-old Leslie Legum of Baltimore. Legum’s father started the Park Circle Motors business in 1921 in northwest Baltimore at Park Circle and Reisterstown Road. The business was a thriving Chevrolet (GM) dealership by the time son Leslie took it over in 1950. (Park Circle Drive is the name of one of the roadways in the industrial park) On April 9, 1952 the business received a setback when a six-alarm fire devastated the building’s non-fire sprinklered showroom, garage and storage facility that resulted in approximately $1,000,000 of damage (See photos below). Other than some minor injuries to employees, who managed to save dozens of new cars from the burning structure, no one was severely injured. Legum rebuilt. In the early ‘60s Legum and his partners purchased the land, laid out plans and convinced “blue chip” companies like GM to build on the property that was bordered by the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the east, Dorsey Road to the south, Race Road to the west and Hanover Road to the north. In January 1968, Legum bought out his associates and became the sole owner and president of Parkway Construction. In addition to the General Motors Mid-Atlantic Distribution Center, other companies would build and take advantage of the park’s prime location in the rapidly growing Baltimore-Washington corridor. New companies arrived quickly, such as International Paper Company, Armour, Michelin Tire and Mercedes Benz, and they constructed huge spread out one-story complexes. Legum would also construct a large building for his new distribution firm he had recently established for the selling of electrical appliances and floor coverings. At the Anne Arundel Fire Department Headquarters in Millersville, the Fire Prevention Division, led by Division Chief Frank Burgess, was as busy as ever. In the little plans-review office, with a window view of the north-bound-lane of Maryland Route #3, Lieutenant Bruce Hisley, (see photo) hunched over sets of building plans for the Parkway project. The plans were unrolled, stacked and spread all over a 5’ by 5’ slope-angled drafting table. Burgess’ cigar smoking, workaholic and “rising star,” Bruce Hisley, slaved over and meticulously studied the plans of fire sprinkler systems, the underground water mains and the large aboveground water tank that would eventually supply a state-of-the-art fire protection water supply system for the industrial park. Hisley’s responsibility as the plans reviewer was to make sure the building plans and speculations complied with the requirements of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) consensus standards as well as local and state building and fire prevention codes. Hisley checked out the drawings of the fire pumps that would supply water and pressure to the miles of sprinkler piping that would be hung from the ceilings covering the thousands of square-feet of offices and warehouses. He would ascertain that the proper type of sprinkler heads were being installed, that the fire department hook-up connections would be compatible to the county’s fire engines and that “waterflow alarms,” to alert the fire department to a fire or sprinkler head discharge, were deemed to be adequate. Architectural plans were reviewed as Hisley calculated the number of required exits, and travel distances to these emergency doorways. He looked at the electrical plans for the emergency lighting systems and illuminated exit signs – were they wired per the requirements of the National Electric Code? Other building features were checked such as construction materials for supporting walls and roofs, interior finish on the walls and ceilings, fixed and portable fire extinguisher locations, fire lanes for fire engine and ladder truck access, along with other fire protection measures. In addition and to compound the fire department’s fire protection challenges, all of these fire protection devices and building features would have to be field tested on-site and inspected by the prevention division’s very small cadre of fire inspectors. Despite their small staff, Burgess and Hisley were going to make “damm” sure that a major fire, like the one that killed 6, burned down and caused $32,000,000 in damages to GM’s Livonia, Michigan’s massive auto transmission plant in 1953; let alone, another Baltimore Park Circle Chevrolet dealership type fire disaster, would never occur in Anne Arundel County. In 1972, after being assigned to the daywork firefighter position at Company #29 (Jessup), Firefighter-Enginemen George “Sonny” Vincent, John Spiker, Paul Sterling, Duke Hasselhoff , Paul Goray and myself spent what seemed like countless hours, conducting drivers training and performing in-service building familiarization inspections throughout the park. We would check for the locations of the fire department sprinkler connection appliances that would allow fire engine pumpers to by-pass or support the fire protection system. We looked for the built-in fire lanes to determine how close fire apparatus could be located around structures in the event of a fire. We also practiced positioning the fire apparatus in order to properly hook-up to a fire hydrant. My relationship with the Race Road train bridge and the bustling industrial park would only grow four-years later when I was assigned as a lieutenant to Company #21 (Harmans-Dorsey) on December 21, 1976. My very first call on that date occurred at approximately 1100 Hrs. Fire alarm dispatched the company to #12 Race Road for a heart-attack. Firefighter-Engineman Steve Gardiner, Firefighters Jim Duckett, Charlie Phelps and myself responded with the new enclosed crew cab Seagrave Engine 211. Responding to the call we drove along Race Road and under the bridge. When we arrived at the dispatch location we found a 45 to 50 year-old-man lying on his living room floor in full cardiac arrest. It was my first cardiac arrest incident ever. Phelps and I swapped on and off performing chest compressions while Duckett administered oxygen. Gardiner assisted Paramedic #32 Firefighters, Joe Rumenap (see photo) and Bob Stevens, who arrived minutes later with their medical equipment. As Stevens was setting up the defibrillator to shock the patient, Rumenap found a good vein near the victims wrist and stuck it with a needle to administer vital medical fluids. Rumenap, which was his fashion, jumped up, wiggled his rear-end and said, “Hot damm – got it on the first try!” As the patient’s relatives looked on somewhat astonished, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself at Rumenaps antics, but his enthusiasm actually brought some optimism to everyone dealing with the deteriorating situation. Stevens placed the paddles on the victim’s chest, hollered out, “Clear!” and shocked the patient. Rumanap performed another little dance as a weak rhythm was reestablished on the monitor. We may have even brought the poor guy back for a few minutes, but he eventually died in route to or at the hospital. Since the paramedic crew obviously realized that I was new to all of this, they later returned to the station and provided me with an accelerated class on handling full arrest incidents and explained to me how to use the Emergency Medical Radio Communications (EMRC) equipment. At the time, it was expected that the on-scene-fire officer, after assisting with initial CPR efforts, set up the EMRC radio and telemetry equipment to make contact with the doctors at the hospital. On medical related calls from then on, I would always fetch the yellow EMRC radio box off the paramedic unit, open it up and turn on the system. I would write down the patient’s vitals on a note pad as they were relayed to me from the medics. I would then, pick up the attached telephone set and start with, “EMRC, EMRC, Paramedic #32 or #33, etc., and proceed with communicating vital information after the operator acknowledged. During the next 10 years, I could perform this procedure in my sleep as I responded on what seemed like countless medical calls and auto accidents as a lieutenant and later as a captain. (to be continued) Photos of Park Circle Motors Fire from Baltimore Sun – Credit to the photographer Bruce Hisley Photo (conducting an inspection and checking out a standpipe hose) from 2004 Anne Arundel County Fire Department Year Book – Credit to the photographer. Joe Rumenap, working with Larry Archer and demo-victim Dennis Cusick behind the Paramedic 33 unit Photo from 2004 - Anne Arundel County Fire Department Year Book – Credit to the photographer. Arundelburning
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:55:55 +0000
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