Firefighter Close Calls

By Click2Houson.com A firefighter was injured Friday while battling a warehouse fire in west Houston, officials said. According to Houston Fire Department, crews responded to the fire around 5 p.m. on the 9000 block of Ruland. Investigators said the initial call noted that a car was on fire at the AA Self and Boat Storage. […]

By Justin Koller, Fox59 COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Indiana as 786 additional Hoosiers tested positive Friday. It brings the total number of confirmed cases to more than 764,000. One man, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Pipe Creek Township firefighter tested positive himself last week – he’s currently in Indianapolis at Ascension St. […]

7/24/1931 the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for Aged six-alarm fire killed forty-eight of the 250 occupants in Pittsburgh, PA. Most who died were aged and infirmed patients of the home located on the corner of South Aiken and Penn Avenues, in the East End District. The fire started in the lower part of […]

7/23/1984 the Union Oil refinery fire killed seventeen, including ten members of the fire brigade, in Romeoville, IL. “Around 6:00 p.m. a refinery worker noticed vapors escaping from a hairline crack in a high-pressure, 55-foot tower filled with gas and tried to shut down the tank, but before the pressure could be redirected a spark […]

VALDOSTA — Two firefighters remained hospitalized Thursday following a July 12 accident that left four city employees injured, according to a City of Valdosta statement. Three firefighters and a police officer were struck by a falling power pole and sent to South Georgia Medical Center for treatment. One firefighter had to have his leg amputated […]

7/22/1913 the Binghamton Clothing Company factory fire killed thirty-one, many trapped on the fourth floor, in Binghamton, NY. Workers, mostly women, initially refused to take the fire alarm seriously. About an hour after lunch, 111 people working in the four-story, brick factory building that faced the Chenango River. “Time was money” paid by “piece work” […]

7/21/1887 a Buffalo, NY firefighter died while fighting a fire at Box 232, Main and Goodell for the Ziegele Brewery at Washington and Virginia. “Engine 6 responded on the multiple Alarm as the blaze grew quickly. Firefighters bravely battled the flames as they threatened many nearby buildings. While advancing a hose line up a ladder […]

7/20/1899 a Denver, Colorado firefighter “succumbed to injuries sustained while operating at the Western Chemical Company fire on June 18, 1899, at South Seventh and Bayaud. The fire started just before 6:00 p.m., billowing thick brown smoke from a storeroom. The storeroom contained about 50 carboys of muriatic acid, two of which had already exploded. […]

7/19/1845 a Manhattan, New York firefighter died at “an early-morning blaze, which started in a sperm oil store, rapidly spread down New Street and across Exchange Place to Broad Street. When the fire reached a large warehouse, which contained a large quantity of saltpeter, it burned for a short time and then exploded. The massive […]

By Matt Paddock, WPRI Three firefighters were injured and taken to the hospital after battling a fire in Sunday morning. According to North Kingstown Fire Chief Scott Kettelle, crews were called to Pojac Point Road around 10:30 a.m. for a report of a fire. When they arrived, heavy fire was coming from the second floor […]

By Kevin Canessa, The Observer A five-alarm fire tore through three homes on Elm Street in Kearny the morning of July 18, 2021, but all occupants of the homes affected fortunately survived the blaze, though several pets did not make it, Kearny Fire Chief Joseph A. Mastandrea said. “The Kearny Fire Department received a 911 […]

7/18/2001 the Howard Street Tunnel fire (also known as the Baltimore Freight Rail Crash) started after a 60-car CSX Transportation freight train derailment in a freight through-route tunnel under Howard Street in Baltimore, Maryland. The train consisted of 60 cars. Car numbers 46 through 56 derailed in the Howard Street Tunnel at 3:08 p.m. and […]

7/17/1981 the Kansas City Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse killed 114 and injured over 200 after 2,000 people had gathered in the multistory atrium to watch a dance contest. The suspended concrete walkways on the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th floors were packed with spectators. A flawed design change doubled the load on the tie rod connections […]

A Michigan firefighter and a civilian were injured in a dog attack Thursday. The incident happened as Madison Heights firefighters and police were called to a home because of an aggressive dog that had attacked its owner, WDIX-TV reports. Once at the scene, a firefighter entered the house to help the owner with the canine. “They […]

7/16/1990 the Empire State Building fire in New York City injured 38 people, including 31 firefighters, and snarled traffic in that part of midtown for hours. A smoky four-alarm fire billowed smoke from the midsection of the 102-story building. The fire started around 6:30 p.m. and was confined to the 51st floor, though the effects […]

7/15/1970 the Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act of 1970 was signed into law. “During the 1960s a Los Angeles cardiologist named Walter S. Graf became concerned about the lack of actual medical care being given to coronary patients during emergency transportation to a hospital. In 1969, while serving as president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the […]

A Florida firefighter indicates he developed kidney and prostate cancer after being regularly exposed to aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) used to fight fires, which contained toxic chemicals known to build up in the body and cause several health risks. The complaint (PDF) was filed by Joseph Attanasio in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina on […]

SPRING VALLEY — The village’s chief building inspector, Wayne Ballard, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of filing a fraudulent report with the state. Ballard and Assistant Building Inspector Raymond Canario are among six people charged as a result of a continuing investigation into the fatal fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults […]

7/14/1874 the Second Great Fire in Chicago, IL was reported around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. “It was raised near the corner of Clark and 12th Street (Roosevelt Road), just a few blocks south of the downtown business district. A fire had broken out, inauspiciously beginning the same way the Great Fire had, in a small […]

7/13/1865 the P. T. Barnum’s Museum burned down; for a twenty-five-cent admission, visitors viewed an ever-revolving series of “attractions” in the building located the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in lower Manhattan. “Barnum quickly re-opened the American Museum at a different location, but it too burned to the ground in 1868. After the second […]