3/13/1899 a Syracuse, New York firefighter died fighting the fire at the Mowry Hotel. Assistant Chief Hamilton S. White, “a 1877 graduate of Cornell University, was so interested in firefighting. He bought a chemical engine from the city and hired twelve men to act as his firefighting company in his father’s stable, paying them himself. He installed the first fire boxes in the city and had 12 miles of wire strung in Syracuse. Finding that the engine house was too expensive, he gave it to the city and asked that they give him a position as firefighter without salary. Instead, they made him third assistant chief, but he would not accept a salary. He died fighting the fire at the Mowry Hotel on March 13, 1898. The citizens of Syracuse erected a monument to his memory at Fayette park at a cost of over $12,000, being the first ever erected by the public in honor of an individual in Syracuse. He had extensive property in the city, was president of the Syracuse Gas Company and director of the Commercial Bank, and the Onondaga County Savings Bank.”
3/13/1907 a Newark, NJ firefighter died. “On March 3, 1907, he contracted a cold from exposure at a café fire at 156 Market Street. On March 13, 1907, he died from pneumonia.
3/13/1911 a Buffalo, NY firefighter “died from the injuries he sustained, after being caught in an explosion at a 3-alarm fire at the Wood Products Company at Jersey and Fourth Streets. A collapse had occurred which sent firefighters running for cover when an alcohol tank exploded sending large sheets of steel into the air. He was about 50 feet away when he was struck by debris and pinned. Members of the department quickly work to remove him, and he was then transported to the hospital where he died while undergoing surgery for his injuries.”
3/13/1921 two furniture stores were destroyed by a fire at 25 and 27 West Broad Street in Richmond, VA that killed four firefighters, an unidentified citizen, and injured eleven. The fire started in the top floor that spread to the floor beneath. Firefighters “were standing on the roof of the Hopkins store manning a hose which was playing on the roof of the Jurgens Store, which was higher, when the dividing wall fell in, causing a “back draught” which caused the collapse of the Hopkins store, and all of the firefighters on the roof plunged down four floors to the ground.”
3/13/1984 a Yonkers, New York died while fighting a fire in “an occupied, one-story brick furniture storage warehouse. He and two firefighters from a ladder company began to open the roof, a portion of it collapsed, pitching him into the burning building. The other two firefighters were able to grab hold of structural members and hold on until rescued. A search was immediately started by firefighters for the missing firefighter, but heavy smoke and heat, coupled with very dense stock conditions, severely hampered their efforts. His body was found about two hours later, wedged between a wall and a cabinet. He was pronounced dead of smoke inhalation.”
3/13/2004 two firefighters died, and twenty-nine firefighters were injured during a five-alarm church fire in Pittsburg, PA. The National Historic Landmark church was built in 1875 and still use as a house of worship and school. The four-level masonry church (several courses of red brick covered with stone) was 120’ x 70’ with an approximately 50’ pitched roof line covered with asphalt shingles and supported by heavy timber trusses. During the 1930’s a renovation added an exterior stone façade and a 115’ bell tower capped with four spires; this was a non-stand-alone structure supported by steel I-beams with a brick and stone façade that was connected into the southwest corner. A 60’ x 45’ three-story annex was added in 1994. The fire started in the front southwest corner basement ceiling in an electrical/computer room and spread horizontally through the concealed space between the basement ceiling and first floor and travelled vertically through concealed wall spaces of the structural members, framing and interior furnishings. At 12:13 hours the bell tower collapsed during overhaul operations while crews were working inside the church vestibule.
3/13/2004 a Soledad, CA firefighter died when a passenger car drove through the smoke from the fires and attempted to pass through the scene. “He and the members of his engine company were preparing to fight a vehicle and brush fire on Highway 101. He was stretching an attack line. The car struck him and threw him onto the top of the engine. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the car, a 28-year-old female, was arrested and charged with several counts, including leaving the scene of the crash, and was an unlicensed driver.”
3/13/2018 a condominium building caught fire in the early morning in Pompano Beach, Florida, leaving one person dead and about 100 residents displaced. The fire happened at 1505 N Riverside Drive and residents say the fire began around 1:15 a.m. “There was a speaker. There was a prerecorded voice saying, ‘There’s a fire in the building, evacuate the building. Do not use the elevator. Take the stairs,” resident David Booth said. A woman walked out of her bathroom to find her seventh-floor apartment on fire. She was able to escape unharmed. The fire was contained to one apartment, but the smoke spread quickly down the hallway and to nearby apartments. The 15-story high-rise building, did not have an automatic fire sprinkler system.
3/13/2009 Etowah County, AL two adults and three children were killed in a home fire.
3/13/1990 a fire at the Dardanelle Nursing Home (Dardanelle, Arkansas) a 90-bed skilled, licensed, nursing facility with 85 patients in the building killed four and sent ten to the hospital. The nonsprinklered one-story, noncombustible concrete block (exterior and interior walls) structure had a poured concrete floor slab. The building was divided the building into three areas (west, center, and east) by two slab-to-slab-concrete-block fire walls. The corridor walls extended from the slab to a few inches of the underside of the roof decking, room walls extended a few inches above a non-fire-rated, noncombustible suspended ceiling. Corridor openings were protected with 1-½ hour fire-rated doors with magnetic hold-open devices. The built-up roof over corrugated metal pans was supported by unprotected steel bar joists set on the corridor and exterior walls. The building was designed and constructed in 1969, as a nursing home with a fire alarm system. The materials first ignited were the contents of a clean-linen cart in a storage room that spread to the space above the suspended ceiling. The fire and heavy smoke conditions were intensified by hot gases and flames caused by asphalt in the built-up roof assembly melting. The absence of a complete automatic sprinkler system, the compartment of origin failing to contain the fire, and fire and smoke travel through concealed space contributed to the loss of life.
3/13/1975 the House of Angels orphanage fire killed fourteen in Seoul, Korea.
3/13/1933 an oilfield and pipeline fire near Henderson, TX was caused by the explosion of dynamite that broke the East Texas pipeline. The ruptured pipeline allowed 15,000 barrels of crude oil to escape and burn that damaged several derricks, a pumping station, and a highway bridge.
3/13/1900 a tenement fire in Newark, NJ claimed the lives of sixteen.
3/13/1898 the New York City, NY 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 accommodations for 150 males who paid 15, 20 or 25 cents each according to the location of the rooms.” At 1:30 a.m. a fire was discovered in a washroom on the third floor that auto-vented through the roof before the alarm could be sounded.
3/13/1895 a fire destroyed several businesses and property at Fourth and Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri about 5:30 p.m. that started in the big 4-story building at 410 West Fifth Street and spread to the north by gale-force winds to the top of the 5-story brick building.
3/13/1895 a hotel fire in Mackeyville, WV killed three that started in the lobby, “fifteen persons escaped by jumping from windows,” The hotels and a store were completely destroyed.
3/13/1895 Sharon, PA the Sharon Works, a foundry, fire injures five.
3/13/1889 the King Block fire on Lawrence Street between Fifteenth and Sixteenth destroyed several businesses in Denver, CO.
3/13/1993 a Coram, New York firefighter “was refilling SCBA cylinders when he was injured by an SCBA air cylinder that exploded (ruptured) and struck him in the chest. The cylinder that exploded should have been removed from service in 1985 and a neck reinforcing ring installed. Additionally, it was beyond its service life and did not have a current hydrostatic test.” He died from his injuries.
