On 3/18/1951 Sparky® the Fire Dog was born; Happy Birthday Sparky! “The legend of Sparky the Fire Dog began with a small Dalmatian puppy sitting outside a fence surrounding a school. The Dalmatian pup loved to watch the children at play. One day he decided to follow two of the … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/17
On 3/17/1631 the 1st fire prevention legislation in the United States was passed in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the ordinance banned thatched roofs and wooden chimneys. On 3/17/1899 the Windsor Hotel in New York, New York was destroyed by a fire that killed almost 90 people. “On … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/16
On 3/16/1993 around 4:00 p.m. a Chicago, Illinois fire killed nineteen residents at 1432 N. LaSalle Street, the Paxton Hotel, an apartment building for low-income people, that spread to several rooms and filled corridors with combustion products in the four-story Type III … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/15
On 3/15/1923 seven women and two men perish in a fire following a gas explosion in the basement at the Almshouse in Angelica, New York. “The Allegheny County Almshouse was on the outskirts of this village and opened in 1831. New York State passed a law that required each county … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/14
On 3/14/1981 an early morning fire at the Royal Beach home hotel killed nineteen and fourteen others, including two police officers, were injured at 5523 North Kenmore Avenue in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The fire started in the first-floor laundry room and … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/13
On 3/13/1898 in New York City, New York, in the Bowery Mission, a three-alarm fire killed eleven at 105 Bowery, a lodging house that had “a cheap restaurant” in the basement, a “mission” on the ground floor, and the “four upper floors were fitted up as a cheap lodging house, with … [Read more...]
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/12
On 3/12/1883 around 11:00 p.m., eleven lodgers died nine miles from the city of Deadwood, North Dakota at Brownsville Wood Camp on the Homestake Railway line when a fire destroyed the one-story-long, cheaply constructed shack of pitch pine, building with sleeping loft, accessible … [Read more...]