1/7/1879 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter died as a result of a fractured skull sustained in a building collapse.
1/7/1880 a Memphis, TN firefighter “died as a result of injuries he sustained the previous day, when he and two other firefighters were caught under a collapsing wall while operating at a major factory fire. One of the other men was killed instantly in the collapse.”
1/7/1893 a New Haven, CT firefighter “died of the injuries he sustained while operating at a house fire.”
1/7/1929 two firefighters were killed in Lima, OH during the Allen County Courthouse fire when part of the roof collapsed burying them on the second floor of the building. There was an eight-foot concealed space between the ceiling of the second story and the floor of the third, where the fire started, “presumably from a blow torch being used to thaw frozen pipes.” Many county records were destroyed.
1/7/1948 a Springfield, OH firefighter “died at City Hospital after being overcome while operating at a fire at 903 Mound Street.”
1/7/1960 a Cleveland, OH firefighter collapsed and died while working at a three-story apartment building fire at 1846 East 90th Street.
1/7/1970 a District of Columbia (Washington DC) firefighter “died as a result of inhaling toxic fumes while operating at a fire involving Xerox copying machine chemicals at the Navy Yard the previous day.”
1/7/1974 a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighter “suffered a fatal heart attack while working on the roof of a blazing building at 238 President St. Although Ladder 109 normally covers Bay Ridge, the unit was called to the Park Slope area to cover the blaze. During the fire fighting operations the firefighter worked as the “roof man”, opening skylights and other openings to ventilate the smoking, steamy building. Fellow firefighters futilely administered artificial respiration and he was rushed to Long Island College Hospital where he was pronounced dead. In 1970 he rescued a senior citizen from a burning building at 7701 Fifth Ave.”
1/7/1975 a Buffalo, New York firefighter while operating at a fire in a vacant 2-½-story frame dwelling was crushed to death when the attic floor he was standing on collapsed bringing down the walls and part of the roof.
1/7/1976 a Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighter died from injuries he sustained when the floor he was working on collapsed, and he became trapped in the basement.
1/7/1985 two Sauk Centre, MN firefighters died while operating at a restaurant fire. “On arrival, firefighters found heavy smoke showing from the second floor of the two-story-frame restaurant that was shaped like a boat. Firefighters advanced a line to the second floor and were forcing entry on a door into the bar area when the floor suddenly collapsed. They were pitched into a first-floor utility room that was fully involved in fire and died of smoked inhalation. Another firefighter managed to grab hold of some floor-boards and was able to pull himself back up.”
1/7/1952 a fire in the 7-story wood frame Congress hotel that was closed for the winter spread to the five-story Lorraine hotel and five large rooming houses in Atlantic City, NJ. All were destroyed by fire fanned by a strong 30-mile-an-hour winds from the Atlantic Ocean that started around 7:00 a.m.
1/7/1950 a fire destroyed the “mental ward” at the Mercy Hospital that killed forty-one and injured thirty-one in Davenport, IA. 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 60-year-old brick structure. The three male patients escaped, leaping from an unbarred window. “The path to safety for many of the patients was blocked by barred windows.”
1/7/1913 the business section of Mason City, IA was destroyed by fire that started in the Lombardo confectionary store on State Street around 1:30 a.m. “Several business blocks on State and Michigan Streets were in ashes before the progress of the fire could be checked” on the extremely cold night leaving “a score or more families are homeless.”
1/7/1910 Bramwell, WV twenty-one buildings in the business district were destroyed by fire, martial law was declared.
1/7/1908 rioters burn the Courthouse in Bryson City, NC following an open revolt a few nights ago between blacks and whites, all the town and county records were destroyed, “no public documents of any kind were saved.”
1/7/1902 a lamp fire killed one in Mt Ayr, IA.
1/7/1892 a mine explosion left 100 dead and 150 serious injured when “inexperienced worker accidentally set off a stash of explosives” in Krebs, OK that “was mainly due to the mine owner’s emphasis on profits over safety. Southeastern Oklahoma was a prime location for mining at the turn of the 19th century. Much of the land belonged to Native Americans and thus was exempt from U.S. federal government laws and regulations. Although the mining company’s indifferent attitude toward safety was well-known, there were more than enough immigrants in the area willing to work in the dangerous conditions at the Krebs mine, where most miners were of Italian and Russian descent. The Osage Coal & Mining Company’s No. 11 mine was notorious for its poor conditions. This led to a high turnover of workers, and the company routinely hired unskilled labor, providing little in the way of training to get them up to speed. This was true for even the most dangerous jobs, like handling explosives and munitions.”
1/7/1881 thirteen inmates at the Stafford County Farm in Dover, NH died in a fire at 4:30 a.m. One hundred and sixty-nine persons were in the building at the time of the fire that reportedly started from the furnace. “The Water-works were rendered useless by the extreme drought, and no water could be obtained.”
1/7/1881 a boiler explosion at the Big Puddle (Rolling) Mill in Allentown, PA killed twelve and injured six of the 200 employees working at the plant when the five-year-old 30-foot long boiler, made of 5/16“-iron, began leaking and then suddenly exploded sending “flying missiles” throughout the plant and releasing scalding steam.
1/7/2013 a fireworks explosion caused an elevated portion 260-foot east-west highway to collapse near Beijing China when a 100-foot bridge collapsed crushing and burying, at least 25 vehicles in Mianchi County killing nine and injuring thirteen.