On 4/30/2014 a natural gas explosion at the Escambia County jail in Pensacola, Florida killed two inmates and injured 184 of the 600 inmates and corrections officers in the facility when a gas line exploded around 11:00 p.m. The explosion was believed to have originated in a rear laundry room on the first floor. The basement was flooded during heavy rains (Pensacola Airport reported more than 15 inches before midnight) and a retention wall had collapsed from water damage before the explosion.
On 4/30/1893 six of the twenty occupants died in a tenement house fire in Burlington, Iowa shortly after 2:00 a.m. in an old brick house at 855 Jefferson Street. “Shortly after 2:00 a.m. Sunday an old brick tenement house at 855 Jefferson Street was destroyed by fire and six of its inmates burned to death. The lodging house was conducted by Mrs. Judson. She and a young servant girl named Maggie Bailey were the only women in the building. The lodgers were of the poorer class of laborers and mechanics, about twenty of whom occupied the various rooms upstairs. The building was a veritable fire trap, consisting of winding hallways and dark landings, some of the rooms being without windows. So quickly did the fire spread that the unfortunate victims were caught like rats in a trap. All were burned in a shocking and almost unrecognizable manner. One victim’s feet were burned off, and one of the victim’s bodies almost fell to pieces when removed. Maggie Bailey and Mrs. Judson had to leap from the window to the pavement below in their night clothes. A son of Mrs. Judson rushed to the doors of the various sleeping rooms, attempting to arouse the occupants. He thus saved several lives, but many had narrow escapes, almost all having to leap from the windows in their night clothes. A sickening sight met the gaze of the firefighters and police officers when the flames were sufficiently subdued to permit their entrance. At the foot of the stairway was a roasted body. In a room at the head of the stairs, which had no windows, were found two bodies, one was kneeling as if in prayer, with his hands gripping the bed railing as if in a vise, while the other lay in a distant corner, where he apparently had wandered in the darkness with his clothes in his arms. In the room next to this, with a window opening on a rear shed, was found a victim dressed and evidently within an arm’s length of liberty when overcome by the flames. He was lying within a few feet of the window, and the other roomers who escaped at that window must have stepped over his body. In another room without windows, only accessible from the stairway by a long winding hall, were found the bodies of two men. One’s feet had become tangled in a chair, while the other, with a pair of pants wound about his head, had fallen over the first. There are several suspicious circumstances connected with the fire.”
On 4/30/1924 a Chicago, Illinois firefighter died of asphyxiation while operating at a fire.
On 4/30/1951 a Cambridge, Massachusetts firefighter died “while operating on mutual aid at a tissue warehouse fire in Somerville.”
On 4/30/2000 a Greenwood Fire Company firefighter “died while participating in a live-burn training exercise in an acquired structure. Firefighters were conducting controlled burn training exercises in a 2-½ story wood frame dwelling. After several small training fires were set and extinguished on the first floor of the structure, firefighters had planned to set additional fires in multiple areas of the structure to complete the demolition of the building. As fires were set in an attic room, the firefighter was using a small garden-type sprayer to distribute diesel fuel to accelerate the fires. All other firefighters had left the attic space and proceeded to the first floor of the structure. A firefighter waiting at the base of the attic stairs for the firefighter noted fire and smoke coming from the attic. When firefighters reached the exterior of the structure, they notified the Fire Chief that one firefighter was missing and possibly trapped. As some firefighters attempted to suppress the fire, other firefighters used a ground ladder to access the second floor of the house in an attempt to rescue him. After several attempts, firefighters followed the sound of an activated personal alert safety system (PASS) device and were able to reach the missing firefighter. They were unable to remove him as portions of the collapsed roof had partially covered him. His body was later recovered from the structure after the fire was extinguished.”
On 4/30/2005 an Andover, Iowa firefighter who “was employed at a farm where he found an unconscious co-worker in a manure pit on April 16, 2005, initiated the 911 system and then entered the manure pit to attempt a rescue. He was overcome by the atmosphere in the manure pit and collapsed before he could affect a rescue. Responding firefighters from the fire department arrived on the scene. They donned self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and entered the pit to remove both men. The firefighter was transported to the hospital, where he died on April 30, 2005. The cause of death was listed as brain injuries due to exposure to manure gases.”
On 4/30/2016 a Pineville, North Carolina firefighter ‘died from injuries sustained while operating on the interior of a commercial structure fire at a strip mall in Pineville, North Carolina. A second firefighter was injured in the incident. According to Pineville fire officials, the firefighter was found in distress by fellow firefighters and was immediately removed from the building. Medics transported him to CMC Main where he was pronounced dead. The Pineville Fire Department was called to a strip mall in the 8500 block of Pineville Matthews Road just after 9:00 p.m. The strip mall included Edwin Watts Golf and Family Dollar among other stores. When firefighters arrived on the scene they called for backup from the Charlotte Fire Department. At least two firefighters were inside the Edwin Watts store when crews received a distress call. “A mayday call was sounded. Team resources were directed toward the call for help. Within minutes two firefighters from Pineville Fire Department were removed from the building and transported to Carolinas Medical Center,”
On 4/30/1911 the Bangor, Maine conflagration killed three and injured fifty.
On 4/30/1928 the Wautoma County Wisconsin Court House was destroyed by a fire that “originated in the basement when the furnace door blew open, between 5 and 6 a.m.”
4/30/1927 Federal #3 coal mine explosion killed 97 in Everetteville, West Virginia.
On 4/30/1893 six of the twenty occupants died in a tenement house fire in Burlington, Iowa shortly after 2:00 a.m. in an old brick house at 855 Jefferson Street.
