Firefighter Close Calls

On 5/18/1927 the Bath School disaster killed forty-five and injured fifty-eight people, 38 elementary school children, most children in the second to sixth grades, and 6 adults attending Bath Consolidated School in Bath Township, Michigan. Bath was a rural village about ten miles from Lansing, the state capital. About 314 students from around the region […]

Rochester, N.Y. — A house fire that injured a firefighter on the city’s northeast side is under investigation. Crews responded around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday to a home on Fifth Street and reported flames from the second story of a wood-frame home. Crews had to back off from their initial interior attack when several firefighters received electrical […]

A fire broke out at a housing complex in San Jose Tuesday morning, leaving three people, including a firefighter, injured and three units with significant damage, according to the fire department. The fire along the 1500 block of Fitchville Avenue was reported just before 10 a.m., San Jose Fire Department Capt. Sean Lovens said. Arriving […]

A firefighter is expected to make a full recovery after being injured Monday while battling a blaze at a home in East Long Beach, authorities said. The fire broke out sometime around 5:45 p.m. in the 5600 block of Deborah Avenue, just north of the 405 Freeway near Bellflower Boulevard. When Long Beach fire personnel […]

On 5/17/1923 a fire during closing day ceremonies at Grover Cleveland School in Sandy Mill, Kershaw County (Beulah) South Carolina left seventy-seven dead when “a lamp fell from the ceiling onto the stage of the second-floor hall where the play was being held causing the burning oil to ignite the straw and oilcloth used as […]

PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. – Two firefighters were hospitalized Friday while battling a fire in Pittsylvania County after oxygen tanks exploded in the flames. On Friday, crews were working to extinguish a fire coming from the basement of a single-story home. Officials later discovered the fire was coming from an explosion from multiple oxygen tanks that were […]

On 5/16/1896 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter was electrocuted at a fire. On 5/16/1909 a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighter died from injuries he sustained after falling from a fire escape at 831 Arch Street. On 5/16/1917 a Kansas City, Kansas firefighter “was killed when a wall had collapsed on him while he was operating at a fire […]

The mother of Former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield was one of the 10 murder victim’s in Saturday’s mass shooting. The gunman opened fire at the Tops Friendly Markets store, killing 10 people and wounding 3. The commissioners mother, Ruth Whitfield, 86, was on her way home from visiting her husband in a nursing home […]

May 15 of each year is “Peace Officers Memorial Day” and the week in which it falls is “Police Week.” President John F. Kennedy declared the first Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15, 1962, as a tribute to and in honor of peace officers who, through their courageous deeds, lost their lives or became […]

SHEEPSHEAD BAY, Brooklyn (WABC) — Three firefighters were among 15 people who were injured in a fire in Brooklyn early Saturday. Citizen app video shows where the smoke and flames broke out just before 4 a.m. on the first floor of a 7-story building on Homecrest Avenue in the Sheepshead Bay section. More than 100 […]

On 5/14/1878 a New Haven, Connecticut firefighter died from the injuries he sustained after he had fallen from a roof. On 5/14/1911 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died “while fighting an industrial fire at 2121 W. Rice Street. The fire originated at the rear of the Swanson Theater and was discovered at 4:30 p.m. Firefighters arrived […]

Two firefighters were injured while responding to a residential fire that engulfed a North Whidbey home early Thursday morning. North Whidbey Fire and Rescue responded to a call about a house fire on Sunset Drive at 12:20 a.m. The agency was joined by Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue, the Oak Harbor Fire Department, the […]

After research from facilities management provider Samsic revealed that poorly maintained alarm systems are responsible for over 30% of call-outs in the UK, business owners are being urged to check and maintain their fire and security alarms.   The research, based on 968 call outs in 2021 where the trigger of the alarm could be […]

MIAMISBURG, Ohio (WDTN) – A massive house fire left a firefighter injured and a home destroyed in Miamisburg Thursday night. Around 10:45 pm, a passerby saw the S. Riverview Avenue home burning and called 911, Montgomery County Regional Dispatch said. Battalion Chief Mike Renk with the Miami Valley Fire District said that, when crews arrived, […]

On 5/13/1985 the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police aerial bombed Osage Avenue and MOVE, a radical cult group, that had assembled a large arsenal, left eleven people dead and 61 homes burned down. “At the MOVE headquarters, 6221 Osage Avenue, MOVE began assembling a cache of weapons and building bunkers in their row house; members set up […]

On 5/12/1996 an accidental fire at the University of North Carolina Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house at approximately 6:00 a.m. killed five and injured three others. The three-story building with an unfinished attic and a walk-out basement, Type III (211) construction built in 1927 with masonry exterior bearing walls, wood frame interior walls covered with […]

NORTHVILLE TWP. (WWJ) — Fire crews in Wayne County made two visits to the same home in the span of seven hours to deal with a stubborn fire. Eight Mile Road between Haggerty and Griswold was closed for two hours Tuesday as crews were on the scene of a house fire at around 10:30 p.m. in […]

On 5/11/1985 a soccer stadium grandstand fire killed fifty-six in Bradford, England. Bradford was playing Lincoln City in the afternoon, near the end of the first half a fire broke out at one end of the main stands. Within minutes the fire spread up the wooden roof and quickly engulfed the fans underneath. “The official […]

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Wauwatosa firefighters responded to a house fire near North 76th and West Clarke streets. It started around 1:25 a.m. Tuesday and flames were seen shooting from the roof of the home as crews tried to put it out. One firefighter suffered minor injuries from falling debris. He was treated and expected to […]

On 5/10/1918 a Detroit, Michigan firefighter died of complications of a pelvic fracture sustained when he fell through a roof at a fire scene. On 5/10/1935 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter of “Truck 39 was fatally injured when he responded to a fire at 1503 West Harrison Street. He was knocking on the doors of nearby […]