FIREFIGHTER FATALLY INJURED AND TWO OTHERS SERIOUSLY INJURED BY FALLING CORNICE DURING FIRE IN MERCANTILE BUILDING – THE MARSTON BUILDING FIRE – BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – OCTOBER 29, 1866

Firefighter Fatally Injured and Two Others Seriously Injured by Falling Cornice During Fire in Mercantile Building – The Marston Building Fire – Baltimore, Maryland – October 29, 1866

 Submitted by Rick DeGroot

On October 29, 1866, Fireman Charles F. Bertram of Engine Company No. 2 was fatally injured when he was struck by a falling cornice while operating at a fire in a mercantile loft building in downtown Baltimore. Fireman Bertram along with Firemen Thomas Rodeslie and Foreman William Norris were advancing a hoseline up a ladder when a high wooden cornice fell from the front of the burning building and buried all three members under the rubble. Other firemen and civilians came to their aid and quickly dug the injured men out from the debris. When the men were extricated, it was found that Fireman Thomas Rodeslie sustained severe injuries to his chest and head, Foreman William Norris sustained a broken arm, and Fireman Charles Bertram was found to have both legs broken and injuries to his spine. Fireman Bertram died on October 31,1866 and was the first line of duty death recorded by the Baltimore City Fire Department since being officially established in 1859. The cause of the fire which appeared to have started on the third floor in a hat manufacturing shop was undetermined.

The structure involved in the incident was a four-story Type III Ordinary construction mercantile loft building located midblock at 246 West Baltimore Street between Charles and Hanover Streets in the heart of the busy mercantile district in downtown Baltimore. Known as the Marston Building, the building was of typical mercantile loft construction with brick exterior walls and wooden interior floors, partition walls and roof. The lower floors featured high ceilings and large glass display windows on Side Alpha. A wooden cornice ran along the roofline on Side Alpha. The double building was occupied by several business firms with the first floors occupied by the Marston Brothers, a sales dealer for china, plate and glassware and the Fairbanks & Company platform scale warehouse. The second floor was occupied by Warner & Brother, a wholesale boot and shoe dealer, and the third and fourth floors were occupied by Ruben & Stern, a manufacturer of hats and caps. Similar construction mercantile buildings flanked the fire building. On Exposure Bravo was the carpet warehouse of John Turnbull and on Exposure Delta was the mercantile shop of Lanier & Brothers. The building was not equipped with an automatic fire sprinkler system or a fire alarm. There were several fire hydrants located on the block near the building. A callmans box was located one-half block east at Baltimore and Charles Streets.

Note: A mercantile loft-style building is a structure that was originally built for commercial occupancies such as warehouses, garment factories and other manufacturing uses. The first floor was usually occupied by a mercantile use while the upper floors contained manufacturing and light industrial uses. They were often built using cast iron structural elements including cast iron columns to support the upper floors and cast iron decorative front facades that provided large arched windows to display merchandise at street level. Built with high ceilings and supported by large wooden beams with cast iron columns, loft buildings provided ample floor space for machinery and materials in manufacturing occupancies, and the display of merchandise in mercantile shops. In recent years, many loft buildings have been repurposed into residential apartments and condominiums. They are usually renovated leaving much of the interior brick walls exposed, and the cast iron columns, cast iron facades, and high ceilings retained for aesthetic purposes.

Baltimore is the most populous city in Maryland and the fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic states with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore is in the north-central portion of the state on the Patapsco River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Located about 40 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., the city has a total area of 92.1 square miles, of which 80.9 square miles is land and 11.1 square miles is water. The city is almost surrounded by Baltimore County on the east, north, west and southwest. It is also bordered by Anne Arundel County to the south.

Following the close of the American Civil War, Baltimore became a rapidly growing city. By the 1870 census, the city had added more than 25% additional population as the city bustled with commerce as new factories, foundries and mills took advantage of the transportation options that the natural harbor along the Patapsco River, the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay, afforded. Baltimore’s position along the Mid-Atlantic coast allowed raw materials and finished products to be shipped both north and south via the waterway and several rail lines converging on the city.

The Baltimore City Fire Department was established as a career department in 1859. Prior to that time, Baltimore’s early firefighting was performed by volunteers. The various companies engaged in serious rivalries, resulting in what a Baltimore mayor termed “irregularities”. For example, gangs operating out of firehouses participated in the Know-Nothing Riot of 1856. A 153-member professional municipal department was established shortly thereafter on February 15, 1859.

The new department was organized under Chief Engineer Charles T. Holloway and consisted of two assistant chief engineers, one fire inspector, and seven fire companies.  Each company consisted of one foreman, one engineer, one firefighter, and nine callmen operating one steam fire engine, one hose carriage with 1000 feet of hose, one truck with hooks and ladders, and twenty-seven horses. Initially only four engine companies and one hook & ladder company were in service, with companies 5, 6, and 7 added later in the year. The new department recorded its first fire on February 23, 1859, at 12:15 a.m. at the Hughes cabinetmaker shop on Broadway south of Pratt Street.  After two hours of hard work by the entire department the fire was extinguished.

Today, the Baltimore City Fire Department is an ISO Class 1 department that consists of 1800 career members responding from 38 fire stations operating 32 engine companies, 17 truck companies, 3 squad companies, 1 rescue company, 2 fireboats, 20 full-time advanced life support medic units, 7 full-time basic life support ambulances, 4 peak time basic life support ambulances, and numerous special, support, and reserve units. These companies and units are organized into 7 battalions: 6 fire and 1 EMS. The department responds to about 235,000 calls annually.

The area weather conditions on the evening of the fire, as reported by the Baltimore Sun, were heavy rain with a strong east wind. Note: Research by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown wind speeds on the order of 10 to 20 mph are sufficient to create wind-driven fire conditions in a structure with an uncontrolled flow path (Madrzykowski and Kerber 2009). The windy conditions likely had an impact on fire development and the outcome of the incident.

On Monday, October 29, 1866, Box No. 3 was sounded at 5:50 p.m. The Marston Building located at 246 West Baltimore Street was afire. Arriving city fire units found a fire in the mercantile structure that appears to engulf the third floor occupied by a hat manufacturer. Baltimore firemen quickly set up their hoselines as the steamer engines were connected to the nearby fire hydrants. Ladders were thrown to the front of the building to direct hose streams into the upper floor windows. A heavy rain was falling and a fierce east wind combatted the efforts of the firemen causing fear that the adjoining buildings on Side Bravo to the west would be destroyed.

An immense crowd gathered, despite the wind and heavy rain, to witness the blaze which lit up the entire block. As several members of Engine Company No. 2 were stretching their hoseline up a ladder that had been raised at the front of the building, the heavy wooden cornice along the roofline fell. All three members were swept from the ladder and buried under the mass of burning timber.

Other firemen and members of the crowd surged forward as hundreds of sturdy arms labored to rescue the trapped firemen. In a short while, the first injured member, Fireman Thomas Rodeslie, was pulled from the rubble and found to have received serious injuries to the chest and head. Rodeslie was removed to Williamson’s drug store, corner of Hanover and Lombard Streets, where he was treated for his wounds and then brought to his residence. Company No. 2 Foreman William Norris was extricated suffering from a broken arm, but he walked to his nearby home where the injured limb was set. Several other firemen suffered minor injuries from the falling mass.

Fireman Charles Bertram was draw from the wreckage and found to have both legs broken below the knee and a fractured spine. He was removed to Dr. Dunbar’s office on Lombard Street, where, aided by Dr. D.I. McKew, the limbs were set. He was later removed to his residence on West Pratt Street. Dr. Dunbar expressed concern that Bertram had also suffered serious internal injuries. After suffering great agony, Fireman Charles Bertram died from his injuries on October 31 at his residence. He was the first line of duty death recorded by the Baltimore City Fire Department since being officially established 1859.

After two hours of intense labor by the firemen, the blaze was brought under control and was largely contained to the building of origin. The interior of the fire building was gutted in the blaze. The carpet warehouse on Side Bravo suffered smoke and water damage to the contents. The mercantile building of Side Delta suffered minor fire damage to the roof. The origin of the fire was not ascertained but appeared to have started on the third floor occupied by the hat manufacturer. The loses to the building and contents were estimated at $75,000. Most of the companies occupying the building were able to salvage their books and business records and many reopened for business promptly at temporary locations in the city.

Fireman Charles Friedrich Bertram, age 29, was member of the Baltimore City Fire Department assigned to Engine Company No. 2. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth; his two children; his son, Charles J.; and an unborn child; his father, Johannes Bertram; and his siblings, Wilhelm Bertram and Elizabeth Therese Bertram Scharr. His funeral was held on November 2 at his residence at 214 West Pratt Street with the entire fire department in attendance in citizen’s dress with a black crepe band worn on the left arm. The bells of the city’s engine houses tolled from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. as the flags in the city were lower to half-mast in honor of the fallen fireman. Interment followed at Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore.

Following the tragic death of Fireman Bertram, his widow was provided with a benefit of $1,000 from the Traveler’s Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut and $500 from the Southern Accident Insurance Company of Virginia. The city’s merchants had set up an accidental death and disability fund for the members of the city fire department several months before the incident.

The name of Fireman Charles F, Bertram has been inscribed at the Maryland Fire-Rescue Services Memorial in Annapolis, Maryland. The memorial’s centerpiece features bronze statues of a firefighter and an EMS provider ascending from this world as they answer their call to serve with strength, determination, and sacrifice. In their final moment, they turn to say farewell to their loved ones. Below them, a kneeling mother, a child, and an elderly man represent family and community. Brick walls flank the memorial, bearing bronze plaques with the names of fallen fire and EMS members from across the state who gave their lives in service to their communities.

The site of the fatal fire and cornice collapse is now occupied by the historic 22-story Lord Baltimore Hotel. There is no memorial marker at the site.

Commentary:

An exterior building cornice is a decorative horizontal overhang, projecting outward along the entire front wall of a building, usually near the top. Cornices can also be found topping some side and rear walls. Carved wood, brick, stone, and formed metal cornices are often featured on Type III Ordinary construction legacy “Main Street” brick and joist mercantile/residential buildings in many of our older city centers. We can also find cornices featured as decorative trim on many other types of construction including row homes, triple-decker style multiple dwellings, shopping centers, rows of stores, and some private dwellings. Because exterior cornices are attached at the top of a wall high above the street, they often suffer from a lack of regular maintenance. Like any exterior building feature exposed to the elements, they require periodic inspection and maintenance. Wooden cornices need to be caulked and painted while stone, brick and concrete cornices must sealed and the masonry joints repointed. The wooden formwork on the interior of a formed metal cornice may be subject to rot should moisture be allowed to seep into open seams in the metal sheeting. Failure to provide adequate maintenance can result in an exterior cornice becoming a collapse hazard even without being exposed to fire.

In the early days of firefighting, it was common practice to place ladders against a structure in order for firefighters to operate hoselines into the upper floor windows in an attempt to penetrate the burning interior of a building well involved in fire. Before the introduction of elevated master streams devices like water towers, aerial ladder pipes, elevating platforms, and tower ladders, the strength and penetration of the meager fire streams produced by hand-powered pumping apparatus required firefighters to get as close as possible to the building in order to gain any advantage while trying to operate an effective exterior stream. Of course, this placed firefighters in harm’s way and many were killed and seriously injured when a fire ravaged overhead structure fell upon members operating from ladders or in the street. Today firefighters enjoy the advantage of having effective fire streams with a stream reach of 150 feet or more for exterior master streams and as a result the fire service has seen a reduction in the number of firefighters being caught in collapses while operating in a defensive position on the exterior of a building. However, we continue to see fire personnel routinely violate established collapse zones when operating from a defensive position.

There are four strategies an incident commander can use to safeguard firefighters when a fire damaged cornice appears to be unstable and in danger of collapse:

• Use the reach of the hose stream. Firefighter should use the 50-foot reach of a hose stream to withdraw a safe distance away from a dangerous cornice that appears in danger of collapse.
• A collapse zone can be established by the incident commander and all firefighters can be withdrawn out of the collapse zone. A collapse zone is defined as withdrawing firefighters away from a wall a distance equal to one and a half times the height of the wall in danger of collapse.
• Flank the front wall. Firefighters operating hose streams can be positioned in front of adjoining buildings and their hose streams can be directed on the burning building from a flanking position. The stream may not be as effective being directed from an angle; however, the firefighters will be away from the front of the building wall in danger of collapsing.
• Corner safe areas can be established around the burning building. When we look at the fireground around a burning building standing by itself from a birds-eye view we see there are four areas in which to park apparatus and operate master streams – the four corner safe areas. If the front wall and all the other walls of a burning building collapse outward simultaneously (which is very unlikely) there would be four corner areas on the fireground where fewer bricks would land. These are the so-called four corner areas. Probability of survival is greatest in the four corner safe areas. When there is danger of collapse, a safe strategy used by an incident commander is to position aerial streams, portable deluge nozzles, and deck guns on pumpers inside the four corner safe areas.

Unfortunately, there are no photographs or illustrations of the fire incident. We have attached a detail from a 1866 street map showing the location of the incident. And we have included a few photographs and illustrations of exterior wooden building cornices.

We have also attached the link to a BCFS Question of the Week article on exterior building cornices:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/192218352449074/permalink/1494781495526080/

And we have attached a link to a video that shows a burning cornice collapsing from the front of a brownstone building in Brooklyn, New York in 2018 that injured four FDNY firefighters:

https://nypost.com/2018/03/05/section-of-burning-brownstone-falls-on-top-of-firefighters/

Thanks to multiple media sources for the content of this article.

Honor the service of Fireman Charles Bertram by studying the collapse hazards posed by attached porches, parapets, canopies, awnings, marquees, cornices, overhangs, signs and other overhead collapse hazards and by conducting a survey of such attachments on buildings in your local response area with your crew members today.

Remember Fallen Brothers.

Get Out There And Know Your Local!!!