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Fire Disasters: What Have We
Learned? |
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Every once in
awhile, we need to pause and reflect on who we are and what we stand for. As
the American Fire Service pauses to celebrate an illustrious history dating
back 350 years, let us reflect for a moment on some of the great lessons
learned from fire. Some of our greatest progress has occurred just after
someone's town was devastated or many lives were lost. This is not a recent phenomenon.
The earliest recorded fire prevention efforts come from ancient The pages of history are strewn
with stories of great cities that were destroyed by fire:
Something important happened
after each of the fires listed laid waste to a city: improvements ensued. The
purpose of this article is to show that progress in the American Fire Service
has been based upon a series of historic catastrophes. In the wake of each
succeeding disaster, improvements were made. The comedian Eddie Foy was
starring in a matinee performance of the musical comedy, "Mr.
Bluebeard." A standing-room-only audience estimated at 2,000 people
crowded the theater. At some point during the performance, a spotlight
overheated and burst into fire way up in the stagehand's overhead. The fire
that ensued spread quickly through the flammable backstage rigging. Workers
attempted to beat the fire out with sticks in a vain attempt to extinguish
the blaze. A piece of flaming cloth fell to the stage. In a vain attempt to
calm the crowd, Foy had the band continue playing. Suddenly, a woman cried
out and the audience made a mad dash for the exits. As the firemen moved in
to extinguish the flame, they were met with a tangle of human bodies, all
entwined and badly burned. The cause of death for many came
from the terrible smoke and flames. Most, however, had been trampled and
crushed in the rush to leave the hall. Authorities considered it a miracle
that only 602 people succumbed to the fire. The Iroquois Theater was built of
fire-resistive materials. Experts agree that it was well-built, but they also
point out that many important fire protection features were missing or
inoperable at the time of the fire. These include: Blocked asbestos curtains. The investigation that followed
led to a variety of fire safety improvements, all of which addressed the
problems listed above. In fact, many cities still provide a uniformed
firefighter or group of firefighters for major entertainment events. The fire service has long viewed
old-style factory buildings as a serious fire hazard. Many of the worst fires
during the late 1800s and early 1900s happened in factory buildings. Some are
more famous than others. A 1910 fire in a It is the 1911 fire at the
Triangle Shirtwaist Company in The Triangle Shirtwaist Company
was located at It was about 4:45 P.M. on Saturday,
March 25, 1911. A fire started in a rag bin on the eighth floor. It spread
rapidly through the mix of combustible cloth, and soon cutting tables and
other fixtures were ablaze. One group of workers grabbed the standpipe
hoseline and attempted to extinguish the fire. They quickly found that the
hose was rotted and the valves frozen shut. Word of the fire soon began to
pass through the workers jammed into the loft building. Workers surged toward
the exits with which they were familiar. They were met with a wall of fire
racing up the stairs. Others moved toward another exit, but were blocked by a
locked door. When they were finally able to force it, they found that it
opened inward. By this time, there were so many people pushing toward the
door that the door was jammed shut; people began piling up at this point. Very few workers knew that the
freight elevator was still working. A number of young girls faced with the
prospect of a horrible death by fire chose to leap to their deaths from
windows on the eight and ninth floors. Others managed to make it to the roof,
and a small number were able to make their way over ladders to the Bells in Once lines were in position, the
fire was quickly extinguished. The horrible toll was 146 people who leaped to
their deaths or were burned or crushed to death in the panic. The public was
outraged. This fire had proved Croker correct. More was needed than just fire
suppression. After an intense investigation, a
number of changes were instituted. A new bureau of fire prevention was
created in the fire department. Labor laws were passed outlawing many of the
practices which led to the fire. And in the wake of this tragedy, work began
on the codes which eventually led to what we know today as the National Fire
Protection Association's Life Safety Code. The ironic part of this story is
that the building remained in use for decades after this tragedy. As we all know, change takes
time. Less than a year after the Triangle fire, another major blaze struck The building was literally
riddled with dumbwaiter shafts, elevators and multiple unstopped entrances
and passages. As the fire grew in intensity, it made its way upward through
these shafts. Fire personnel quickly moved lines down into the basement and
pressed home an aggressive attack, not aware of the fire burning above their
heads. Soon after discovering the fire above them, a second alarm was
transmitted. As the fire escalated, the number of alarms increased. The weather could not have been
worse, with heavy gale winds blowing freezing, wind-driven spray back onto
the firefighters, who were pouring tons of water onto the blaze. Firefighters
attempting to rescue the building's occupants on the roof just missed being
killed when the roof the men were standing on collapsed, hurling them to
their deaths. The debris from this collapse also trapped three men in the
basement. Unbeknownst to the fire department, these men had made their way
into the basement of the building to rescue millions of dollars in negotiable
bonds which, if they had burned, would have created financial chaos for their
owners. Only through the heroism of Seneca Larke Jr., a full-blooded Native
American, were these men saved. While laying on his belly over the grate
where the men were trapped, under torrents of freezing water and falling
rubble, he worked with a hacksaw to cut them free. The toll from this disaster
included the three civilian workers, one of the basement occupants and two
fire department members. One of the major lessons learned from this fire was
that the latest method of fireproofing structural members had been proven
useless. The lessons from the earlier Schools have never been immune to
fire tragedy. Three of great historical interests are:
These fires occurred for
different reasons. In The victims of the The fatal fire in the Our Lady of
the Each of these fires led to
improvements, which benefit schoolchildren all over It's a shame that so many children have had to pay the
penalty for the sins of adults who did not know or care about fire safety
issues. There are also a number of classic fires in places of public
assembly that have led to upgrades in fire and life safety. Some of them are:
1903 - Iroquois Theater, described above (602 dead). In each one of these cases,
people died in great numbers because fire safety issues were either ignored
or never fully addressed. The Cocoanut Grove was a
one-story nightclub that had been built during the Prohibition era. It was a
popular site and was constantly jammed with customers. The night of Nov. 28,
1942, was no different. The official occupancy was supposed to be 600, but
estimates from that fateful night ranged as high as 1,000. A small fire started in the
basement lounge and quickly raced through the area. Most people knew only the
main entrance which they always used. As the crowd surged toward the exit, it
quickly became jammed. Fire department sources listed nearly 200 people as
being found in this area alone. All told, 491 people were killed by fire,
smoke, heat or the effects of being trampled. Members of the Boston Fire
Department were on the scene quickly, as a full alarm response had been made
to a nearby area for a box alarm that turned out to be a car fire. The fire
quickly escalated to five alarms, but the damage had been done. What was learned from this fire? • Combustible materials must not be used for decorations
or in building components. The Beverly Hills Supper Club
fire more than three decades later exposed us to a fire the likes of which we
thought was a thing of the past. This club was a major regional entertainment
center, with many of the country's top entertainers appearing in its lounges.
The building was originally erected in 1937. A 1970 fire occurred prior to the
building being remodeled. Further expansion occurred in 1974, when the large
Cabaret Room was created. It should be pointed out that automatic sprinkler,
alarm and kitchen hood fire protection was not installed during any of the
construction phases. Fire struck the club on May 28,
1977. The facility was crowded with patrons who hoped to attend one of the
John Davidson shows, which were scheduled for 8:30 and 11:30 P.M. At about
8:45 P.M., employees discovered a fire in the Zebra Room. There appears to
have been about a 15-minute delay in notifying the fire department. During
this time, employees attempted to extinguish the fire themselves. Many people stated that the first
time they noted a problem was when they noticed a large number of people
suddenly leaving the building. There was no building fire safety plan, so
word of the fire was spread from person to person. The evacuation appeared to
be calm until thick, dark clouds of choking smoke engulfed the exit access
areas. One hundred sixty-four people were killed in a tragedy that never
should have occurred. The lessons learned in 1942 were not remembered. The
list of causes included: No installed fire protection, No fire safety plan,
Blocked exits, Crowd in excess of the occupancy load, Inadequate exit
capacity, and Combustible wall coverings. You can add to this list the
effects of toxic smoke generated by burning electrical wiring. In a review of this incident,
Francis L. Brannigan came to the conclusion that the fumes, which killed so,
many of the patrons were not attributable to the electrical wiring. His
review of the incident, and all documentation, led him to posit that the
fumes came from a combustible metal deck roof over the Cabaret Room. It was
his finding that heat could have moved up through wiring openings in the
walls of the building, which would lead heat up to the decking. It was his opinion that
sufficient temperatures could have occurred that would raise the combustible
roof materials to the point at which they would burn. He stated that even if
sprinklers had been installed, the fire would have continued raging above the
sprinklers, with the resultant generation of toxic fumes, much as had
occurred at the giant warehouse fire, which occurred during 1985 at Tinker Air
Force Base in Oklahoma. He muses that this could have led to the first large
loss-of-life fire in a sprinklered building. We would venture to say that many
of these hard-earned lessons are still being violated. The Happy Land Social
Club fire in 1990 had all of the same issues of crowding, inadequate exit
capacity and a lack of installed fire protection. What that situation also
had was a human being bent on revenge who killed scores of people. Do not think for one moment that
our serious fires have only been in buildings. On June 15, 1904, marine disaster
struck Not long after they began their
journey up the Thirty years later, fire on the
high seas was once again in the news. The Morro Castle was a popular cruise
ship plying the New York-to-Havana tourist run. Unlike the General Slocum,
the Morro Castle was protected by a fire detection system. On Sept. 3, 1934,
while returning to New York, a fire was detected in a vacant writing-room
locker. The ship was equipped with fire doors, and had the door to this area
been closed the fire probably would have been held to the room where it
started. While the ship had all of the
required fire protection devices, later investigations would show that the
crew was not well-trained in their use. There were also problems in boarding
and lowering the lifeboats. By the time the burned-out hulk of the Morro
Castle floated ashore in Asbury Park, NJ, 137 people had lost their lives.
Once again, the lessons of the past had been lost on a new generation. Fire knows no bounds in its drive
to kill and maim the innocent. A hot, humid July day greeted the 7,000 people
who had chosen to attend the special matinee program of the Ringling
Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, CT. The extra session had
been scheduled owing to the late arrival of the circus a day earlier. The circus owned a large number
of portable extinguishers and water buckets, but they had not been placed
around the area on July 6, 1944. There was one strong negative that went
undetected by local fire authorities. While the large main tent had been well
cared for, it had been waterproofed in a very dangerous manner. It had been
coated with a covering of paraffin that had been thinned by using gasoline.
Thus the whole circus was held under a highly flammable covering. As the second act was about to
begin, a small spot of flame was observed by an on-duty Hartford policeman.
Slowly the fire spread up the tent, gaining speed as it heated the fuel,
which lay just ahead. At about the same time, the circus bandleader saw the
fire and quickly had the band switch to playing the famous Sousa march, The
Stars and Stripes Forever. This is the traditional circus alarm call. As the fire grew in intensity,
the tent area became a scene of shear terror and pandemonium. People were
pushing toward the main exit, animals were running loose, and burning tent
was falling all around. When the flames were finally extinguished, 168 people
lay dead; more than half of these children. In the wake of this tragic fire,
a number of changes were made to improve circus and outdoor event fire
safety: The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) formed a technical
committee to deal with problems of this nature. The result of this effort led
to the development of NFPA Standard 102, Grandstands, Folding and Telescopic
Seating, Tents and Membrane Structures, Tent tops and tarps must be made from
fire-resistive materials. In this article we have attempted
to demonstrate some of the critical fire safety lessons that have been
learned over the past three and a half centuries. The one thing, which struck
us as we worked on this article, is that there is nothing really new. We must
re-learn the same lessons every generation or so. If the fire service is to
become a true element of the future, we must eliminate the hazards, which we
have covered in this article. It will take time, talent, and diligence. But
the rewards will be well worth the effort. Or we can abide by the classic
words of the late author George Santayana. He once noted that people who
forget the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them. It seems as
though he had the fire service in mind when he made this statement. Each of us can make a
difference. Learn from the past and prepare for the future. |
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Union Fire Company