11/8/1879 New York, NY the 1st recorded use of a mechanical water tower; John Hogan and Abner Greenleaf developed a 50-foot mast water tower consisting of pipe sections raised manually by cranks capable of delivering a large-capacity elevated stream.
11/8/1865 a Manhattan, New York firefighter “died as a result of inhaling coal gas fumes at a fire on October 29th.”
11/8/1917 a Louisville, KY died after a “fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Willard Hotel early in the morning of November 7, 1917. Firefighters used life nets and ladders to rescue a number of the 200 registered guests. During a daring rescue attempt, a firefighter was severely burned, after his coat ignited, as he charged through the flames on the fifth floor to reach a man that was trapped by fire. He died the next day.
11/8/1953 a Milwaukee, WI firefighter “died of smoke asphyxiated at a 4-alarm fire, 2627-31 W. State Street.
11/8/2015 Hyattsville, MD a church van carrying adults and children collided with a pickup truck and burst into flames in an accident that claimed four lives and left fourteen others badly injured.
11/8/2010 five children (ages 15, 13, 12, 8, and 6) died and an adult severely injured in a Citra, (Marion County) Florida 1,400-square-foot wooden house fire at 1760 N.E. 182nd Place.
11/8/1928 Lynn, MA Preble Box Toe Company an explosion kills fourteen.
11/8/1902 three city blocks along the Delaware River in Camden NJ were destroyed in an industrial park conflagration comprising about a dozen frame buildings located at Kaighns Point in the southern section of the city, The Nonpareil Cork Manufacturing Company, the Nonpareil Cloth Works, the Camden Manufacturing Company (manufacturers of chemicals), the McAndrews & Forbes Liquor Manufacturers, and the large warehouse of Mellor-Rittenhouse Licorice Works were entirely destroyed. The British steamer Conway (loaded with licorice root from India) moored to McAndrews & Forbes’ wharf was saved from destruction by the Philadelphia fire boat Ashbridge. “The origin of the fire is unknown.”
11/8/1891 Susquehanna Coal Company mine explosion in Nanticoke, PA killed fourteen.
11/7/1882 Halifax, NS the “Poor House” fire killed thirty-one around mid-night while the occupants were sleeping. The fire started in the basement of the bake-house, in the immense poor asylum building and spread to the base of the long air shaft and elevator, reaching to the top of the main building.
11/8/1869 Gardiner, ME Lyccum Building used as the schoolhouse was destroyed by fire. “The fire is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary.”