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I just found this website on Firehouse.com

The Site is supposed to be news and events related to LAFD and their area.

It may be worth visiting. Give me some feedback on it.

2 months in 1889

In a matter of 2 months in 1889 Washington State experienced 3 major fire that changed the face of Spokane, Ellensburg, and Seattle.

On June 6, 1889, around 245pm in Seattle a man (John E. Back) accidentally started a fire in a building at the southwest corner of Madison & Front (renamed 1st Ave). The reports indicate that a pot of glue erupted in fire. By prompting new development and construction, this fire, known as the Great Seattle Fire, ironically transformed Seattle from a town to a city. By morning, the fire burned 29 square blocks of wooden buildings and about 10 brick buildings, including almost all of the business district, all but 4 of the city’s wharves, & its railroad terminals. The area covered by the fire extended over 64 acres. In a miracle no one died, but it was rumored that a million rats were killed in the fire. The fire began in Clairmont & Company cabinet shop, located in the basement of the wooden Pontius building at 922 Front Street at the southwest corner of the intersection with Madison St. In under a year the city population jumped from 25,000 to 43,000.

The evening of July 4, 1889, a devastating fire swept through the town of Ellensburg, destroying approximately 200 Victorian-era homes & leveling 10 business blocks. The fire began about 10:30 p.m. in a grocery store & spread to frame buildings nearby. Despite efforts by townspeople to fight the fire using the town’s limited mid-summer water supply, the morning of July 5 saw Ellensburg in ruins. The Ellensburg National Bank and the City Hotel survived the blaze. A tent city sprang up & like many towns destroyed by fire, the town quickly rebuilt using less flammable materials. I have no information on injuries during this blaze.

On Sunday, August 4, 1889, a fire destroyed most of downtown Spokane Falls. It began in an area of flimsy wooden structures & quickly spread. Property losses were huge, & 1 death was reported. The fire began shortly after 6PM. The most believable account of its origin is that it started at Wolfe’s lunchroom. Water pressure issues & the main operator of the water control system was away & unavailable. Firefighters fought desperately to control the fire but were unable & had to begin dynamiting buildings trying to deprive the fire of fuel, but flames jumped the open spaces & created a firestorm. In a matter of a few hours the Great Spokane Fire destroyed 32 square blocks, virtually the entire downtown. There were reports of many injuries & property damages of $5-10 million were reported. After the fire, as with all major events like this city officials banned wooden structures in or near the new downtown area, installed an electric fire alarm system, & established a paid fire department, with modern horse-drawn equipment.

The sad fact of the historic fires such as these 3 is that, in any city, your mine or wherever, a major incident, with huge loss of life & property has to happen before most governments will make positive changes & hire more firefighters.

Photos & more information on this post can be found on this website.

July 22, 1997 Fire breaks out at Palais de Chaillot in Paris

In the 3rd museum fire in less than 2 months, this was the largest. In the early hours of July 22, 1997 firefighters were called to the Palais de Chaillot in Paris for a report of a fire in the roof area of the museum. The museum had been under construction and was expecting to expand its offerings. The 120 firefighters that responded to this blaze fought for over 3 hours before bringing the estimated 40,000 sq ft of involved structure to a point they could manage. Reports indicate that the framing of windows and large portions of the roofing fell onto, destroying many artifacts and displays. The museum itself is located in the Trocadero square (established in the 1930s) overlooking the Seine river towards the Eiffel Tower. The fire broke out in an area of the roof that was being renovated. Two firefighters were injured slightly during the suppression efforts, neither was serious. The cause of the blaze was ruled accidental.

missed events

In my haste to create a post for this site yesterday I made a grievous error in not marking a couple anniversaries:

The Port Chicago Explosion of ships carrying approximately 4606 tons of Ammonium Nitrate that killed 322 people. You can read more on this incident here and here and here and here

A collapse of a pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel that resulted in the deaths of 114 people during a ‘tea dance’ in 1981. A detailed report on this incident can be found here, here, here, and here. As hard to accept as it is, this incident is helping to protecting people in the future and help to build better structures down the road. Various engineering schools are studying the results of the investigations to learn from past mistakes.

And today is the 5th anniversary of the 60 car train derailment on July 18 2001 in the Harvard Street tunnel in Blatimore Maryland. This crash caught fire and burned so hot that firefighters were unable to get to the fire for 8 hours. The NTSB has a report here that covers the investigation. More can be viewed here. During the incident streets were closed, traffic rerouted, and the baseball game at Camden Yards was cancelled. Baltimore FD responded in force and with their HazMat Team did a great job containing and extinguishing the blaze, damage totals are estimated at $12 million.

Pomeroy Washington Conflagration - July 18, 1900

On July 18, 1900, an accidental fire started in a saloon in downtown Pomeroy Washington and destroyed almost half of the town. During fire suppression efforts four people were overcome by heat, and several others sustained minor injuries, no fatalities were reported. The cost of the damages was estimated to have been at least $135,800 (in 1900 dollars). Pomeroy, located in Garfield County in southeastern Washington was the center of an agricultural region.

Pomeroy’s economic base was agriculture, and was booming in the summer of 1900; just 22 years old it was experiencing a population boom with new buildings being constructed.

Wednesday afternoon, July 18, 1900, a fire broke out at E. J. Rice’s Saloon on Main Street. Rice and an associate were filling a gas light generator tank in the saloon. They had put some gasoline into an open container, and some of it spilled onto the floor. Evidently Kirby forgot the hazard, and struck a match. The gasoline fumes in the room flashed igniting the gasoline container. Flames quickly spread through the building creating a thick cloud of smoke and fire that shot out of the north end of the building halfway into the street. Firefighters that arrived at the scene minutes later with two hose carts and a hook and ladder truck noted the entire front of the saloon was ablaze.

The Chief and his firefighters worked “manfully,” the wooden buildings on either side of the saloon were “rapidly licked up like a large quantity of shavings”. The buildings east of the saloon suffered from the fire the most. Stiff westerly winds fanned the flames soon devouring the County Courthouse and spreading to the remaining buildings east of the courthouse on the north side of Main except for a blacksmith shop and a wagon shop.

At least 39 businesses were damaged or destroyed. Pomeroy made an amazing recovery from the conflagration. Shortly before the fire, city council passed a resolution requiring all new construction downtown to be of fireproof material. Even after seeing the destruction of this conflagration some people tried to repeal the new law to allow wooden structures to be built. The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company granted a 1/3 reduction in freight rates for shipping building materials for 2 months to assist in rebuilding efforts.
Within 4 years a large majority of the business district had been reconstructed, in bigger and better fashion, showing a great benefit from the fire and reconstruction.

TWA Flight 800 - 10 Years ago

This photo is taken from another site, it shows the reconstruction efforts of NTSB and the investigation into this crash.

On July 17, 1996, 10 years ago today, at around 8:45pm TWA flight 800, a Boeing 747-100, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International. The plane was on a flight to Paris. Initial reports indicate a witnesses saw an explosion, then debris falling into the ocean. No reports of problems were raised by the flight crew to air traffic control. The plane was built in November 1971. It had logged about 93,000 flight hours and almost 17,000 cycles. There were 212 passengers on board the airplane and 18 crew members. The plane was destroyed and there were no survivors.

The crash was rumored to have been caused by a surface to air missle, sabotage, tracking missles, enemy jets, planted bombs, US military jets to start war, and an variety of other causes. In the end the investigation revealed the explosion that brought this plane down was a malfunction and short in an electrical wire.

The clean-up efforts took weeks and the invvestigation saw interviews with over 150 credible and non-credible witnesses, including other pilots in the air at the time of the explosion. Most of these witnesses reported a bright flash of light and other reported hearing a 'boom' and seeing the debris falling into the ocean.

In the end the rumors and speculation of impending attacks proved false and fruitless. The result of the investigation showed that, as tragic as it is, this was simply an accident that resulted in 230 deaths.

This is a website that posts fact and fiction on major incidents, it is called 'Whatreallyhappened.com'. The site provides links to other sites that provide similar vantage points into major events. There are a number of sites that are posting varying information on this crash and the response to it.

I do not have a quality picture of the event itself or further pictures of the investigation into it. Please follow up on other sites and pay your respect to the victims and their families.

A belated Day in History

I was slacking yesterday. The date in history that I am posting on for everyone to remember is: the 26th birthday of Jessica Simpson. Several of us owe many lengthy conversations in the fire house about her. She is one of the best things to happen to the fire service in a long time. This photo is taken from the Internet Movie Database Website, which you can view here.

Fact is that the firehouse conversations are usually ones for the records. When I was hired another fireman told me that there are 4 things you need to talk about in the firehouse and you'll do fine: Women, Guns, Trucks, and all 3 together.

88 years ago today in Nashville, TN

July 9, 1980 7 die in a stampede to see Pope in Brazil

Eighty-Eight years ago today on July 9, 1918 101 people were killed and 171 injured in a train wreck in Nashville, Tennessee. The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis train No.4 was preparing for its trip toward Memphis and was running behind by 7 minutes as train No. 1 was running late by 30-35 minutes coming into Nashville. The train station was very crowded, as most were during this time period due to World War I. Both trains were carrying workers to and from plants to support the war effort. A miscommunication from a signaling tower and the fact both trains were running behind led to both trains being on the same track near Duchman's Curve.

There is a tradition in alot of fire departments where a fireman retires the last day he holds back and doesn't respond and then takes the remainder of the day off after a well prepared steak dinner. On this day the Engineer of Train No. 1 William Floyd died on his last day before retirement. This is why we watch out for each other on our last day.

Anniversary of past fire storms

Fifty-three years ago this Sunday, 15 firefighters were killed in a wildfire in the Mendocino National Forest in California and unfortunately I was unable to post last night on the anniversary of the 14 fire fighters that lost their lives while operating at a major wildfire on Storm King Mountain when shifting 70-mph winds trapped them and the fire swept over their position. I have made mention to the Storm King Mountain fire in a previous post and there are several sites that give the proper time and information that would give justice and proper respect to the memories of the brave firefighters that gave their lives in service to all of us.

Please take a moment to remember those folks who have passed in the line.

Fire Department and station pride

Over the past several months my posts have varied greatly from post to post. I have been thinking about what people like to see and read. The truth is that I have no idea what people want so, I am just trying to put out as much information as possible.

Departmental and station pride has been an issue for several departments. My FD has had several issues with the guys making signs, patches, shirts, hats, and other stuff in reference to their stations. The FD says that none of this is acceptable and tries to crush the efforts. Our stance is that this makes the brotherhood and station happiness grow, but the department says this causes too much arguing and thereby disrupts the operations of the department.

Other departments promote the ideas of station identity and pride. FDNY for example has a logo or mascot for each house (and most units). I found a website that has pictures of each emblem or logo, you can see it here

Other FDs out there do the same thing and each specialized team has its own logo. Our patch is our patch regardless of Haz Mat, technical rescue team, fire marshall's office, inspections, or whatever.

While researching this post I found a blog about LAFD with breaking news and interesting articles. I suggest everyone check it out here and enjoy expanding your knowledge of the various departments and the history of the fire service.