4/15/1840 two Manhattan, New York firefighters were killed when they were caught under a collapsing wall while operating at a fire.
4/15/1857 a Baltimore, MD firefighter “died at his home as a result of injuries the injuries he sustained the previous day in a warehouse fire and collapse.”
4/15/1928 a Hartford, CT firefighter died of the injuries he sustained while operating at Box 8332.
4/15/1961 three Philadelphia, PA firefighters died from injuries they sustained from an explosion at a gas station at 2003 N. 2nd Street.
4/15/1977 a Bulls Head – Staten Island, New York (FDNY) firefighter died while he “operating from an abandoned wooden bridge at a dump fire, some planking broke loose, pitching him 15 feet into a creek. Despite immediate rescue efforts by firefighters, police divers recovered his body in 20 feet of water, four hours later. He had died as a result of drowning and injuries sustained in the fall.”
4/15/1980 an Irvington, NJ firefighter “operating at a fire involving the third floor and cockloft of a three-story frame tenement, collapsed to the street as he exited the building. Attempts were made to revive him, and he was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”
4/15/1983 an East Orange, NJ firefighter “died as a result of critical burns sustained April 13th, when he was caught in a flashover while searching the fourth floor for possibly trapped victims and fire extension at an apartment house fire.
4/15/1994 an Elko, Nevada firefighter died while operating at a gold refinery building fire. “After arriving, he was witnessed putting on his personal protective clothing and SCBA. Two hours later, members of a volunteer fire department that had responded to the fire found his body inside the fire building. He had apparently entered the structure independently and ran out of air inside the refinery. Commanders did not know he was on the fire scene until his body was removed. The initial fire attack was described as hectic to the Nevada State Fire Marshal that investigated the report. His death was attributed to smoke inhalation.”
4/15/2013 Boston Marathon bombings; two pressure cooker bombs exploded at 2:49 p.m. that killed three people and injuring 264. The bombs exploded about 13 seconds and 210 yards apart, near the finish line on Boylston Street.
4/15/1958 Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY fire destroyed the French impressionist Claude Monet painting.
4/45/1957 the Madame Jean Henry Rest Home, a nursing home, fire in Pointe Aux Trembles, QB, a Montreal suburb, left fifteen patients dead in the 18-room 220-year-old building that started in the electric wiring at the point where power lines entered the structure.
4/15/1916 New York, NY an apartment fire burned out the basement and first floor at 453-457 Columbus Avenue.
4/15/1873 Chicopee, MA the Dwight Manufacturing Company was destroyed by fire around 10:45 p.m. that started from an overturned lamp.
1920 the Sacco-Vanzetti case draws national attention. “A paymaster and a security guard were killed during a mid-afternoon armed robbery of a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Out of this rather unremarkable crime grew one of the most famous trials in American history and a landmark case in forensic crime detection.”