Firefighter Close Calls

On 1/10/1883 the Newhall House fire claimed the lives of seventy-one of the 300 residences in the six-story wood-frame Milwaukee, Wisconsin hotel around 4:00 a.m. The original home of the Milwaukee Chess Club the building was located on the northwest corner of Main (now Broadway) and Michigan Streets. The six-story Newhall House was constructed by […]

Nashville, Tenn. (WZTV) — A firefighter was transported for burn injuries after a home caught fire in the Sylvan Park area early Monday. Nashville Fire Department says the firefighter was transported for burns to the hands. No civilians were hurt in the fire, the department adds. Fire crews were on scene early in the morning where […]

On 1/9/1912 the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway New York, New York was destroyed by a fire that claimed the lives of a firefighter and six civilians, slowing the business of the Stock Exchange and several banking houses. However, the contents of the huge vaults were not significantly damaged. The fire started in the rear […]

LABADIEVILLE, La (WAFB) – Volunteer firefighters have a cleanup on their hands after they report possible straight line winds caused damage to their station. Storm damage at Labadieville Volunteer Fire Department(Labadieville Volunteer Fire Department via Facebook) According to the Volunteer Fire Department for the village of Labadieville, straight line winds tossed a mobile home into […]

On 1/8/1901 twenty-seven children and three adults were killed, and twelve others were injured at the Corn Hill Orphanage in Rochester, New York. The fire was discovered at 1:10 a.m. and was caused by a natural gas explosion in the boiler room in the west wing. On a bitterly cold night, the 109 children had […]

All, We regret to share with you that Chief Jim Steffens, retired Fire Chief of Southern Manatee Fire Rescue (Bradenton area of Florida) passed away peacefully this evening. Jim was an internationally recognized fire chief, fire instructor, consultant as well as an instructor at the National Fire Academy for many years. His core focus was […]

On 1/7/1950 a fire destroyed Saint Elizabeth’s, the women’s psychiatric ward at the Mercy Hospital, killing forty-one people and injuring thirty-one in Davenport, Iowa. Sixty-five women and three men were in the building most sleeping when the fire started at 2:00 a.m. in the three-story 80-year-old brick structure. The three male patients escaped, leaping from […]

On 1/6/1993 after six days of firefighting, “a final foam attack was made on the burning oil tank at the Steuart Petroleum Plant in Jacksonville, Florida. The tank was extinguished within an hour, making history in the process as the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department became the only fire department to ever extinguish a fire […]

The family of a firefighter who suffered a heart attack and died while responding to a house fire in Rancho Palos Verdes two years ago has settled with Los Angeles County for nearly $3 million. Jonathan Flagler, 47, went into cardiopulmonary arrest while suffocating on his air tank that had run out of oxygen as he fought the fire […]

On 1/5/2022 eight children were among the twelve dead following a row house fire at a Philadelphia Housing Authority Apartments in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “The ages of the victims range from 2 to 33 years old. Eight people evacuated the building and two additional people were transported to the hospital. The Philadelphia […]

On 1/4/1885 seventeen patients died when the Eastern Illinois Insane Hospital in Kankakee burned at about 4:00 a.m. The fire was “drawn through the network of flues, along the halls, and stairways to every portion of the doomed” south infirmary building. “On a frigid Sunday, a strong odor of smoke on the first floor of […]

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) – Questions are swirling about a New Year’s Day fire that cost a Tennessee family their home, despite being located less than 300 feet from a fire station. Late Monday night, hours into the new year, neighbors watched a Memphis family lose the roof over their heads when their Egypt Central […]

From the Grand Rapids Professional Firefighters Local 366 Facebook Page: SECOND ALARM FIRE: Grand Rapids firefighters are currently on scene of a working fire in the 600 block of Richmond Avenue NW. Companies arrived on scene of a 2-story taxpayer style building with heavy smoke showing. Crews have heavy fire conditions on the second floor. […]

On 1/3/1940 a frigid winter morning just before dawn, about 5:45 a.m. an explosion and fire at the modest three-story Marlborough Apartment Hotel at Third Avenue South and Fifteenth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota killed nineteen that housed more than 120 residents. Believed to have started with a smoldering cigarette wrapped in garbage thrown down the trash […]

On 1/2/1984 just before 11:38 a.m., the primary electrical power system failed at The Westin Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, in the sub-basement of the 38-story high-rise tower. A rapid succession of power failures and a series of explosions filled the space with “heavy smoke” activating the fire alarm system and resulting in the evacuation of guests […]

By WSOC-TV: The Kings Mountain Travel Center was ablaze overnight, prompting a major response from nearby agencies. The fire tore through the truck stop off of Interstate 85 northbound, right across the highway from Catawba Two Kings Casino. It started around 1 a.m. Tuesday. Officials with Cleveland County told Channel 9 that seven departments responded, […]

CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill — The Camp Jackson Fire Protection District‘s firehouse garage door was struck by gunfire just before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Firefighters told a 5 On Your Side photographer that a firefighter had moved away from the garage door just moments before a bullet shot out one of the door’s bay windows. No […]

At 0008 hours in the morning on December 31, 2023, the Tallassee Fire Department was dispatched to a residential structure fire on McArthur Street. Dispatch notified responding units that there was a possible entrapment. Engine 1004 got en route, and its crew donned all PPE ready to make the grab. Car 10 arrived on scene […]

From the Colfax-Greenwood Fire Department Facebook Page: Good evening Colfax-Greenwood residents. This morning around 2am your fire department was dispatched to assist Northwest Wexford Emergency Authority with a structure fire on N 19 Rd in Antioch TWP. Scene size up with our first arriving unit was a fully involved pole barn fire. A defensive attack was in […]