8/21/1846 two Philadelphia, PA firefighters died while operating “at a fire in at the George L. Broome & Company, sugar refinery. Firefighters found the eight-story building heavily involved in fire. The fire had started in the engine room of the building and rapidly spread throughout the upper floors. The streets around the building were very narrow and firefighters worked under extremely perilous conditions to stop the spread of the fire. Suddenly, the walls of the building began to collapse. On the Quarry Street side, one of the collapsing walls crushed the apparatus of the Reliance Engine Company and buried 27 men of the Perseverance Hose and the Fairmont Engine Companies. The two firefighters were crushed to death in the collapse and many others were seriously injured.”
8/21/1923 two Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighters died while fighting “heavy fire showing from the basement of a three-story brick hall, which was used as a political meeting hall. The fire had started in piles of feathers that the butcher, whose shop was located on the first floor, had stored in the basement, and rapidly spread upwards through the building. Three-alarms were sounded, and firefighters went to work attacking the blaze. As it appeared that the fire was under control, exterior lines were shut down and an interior attack was begun to extinguish any remaining pockets of fire. Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke and the roof collapsed into the building. This in turn pushed the front wall out onto firefighters who were working below. The members of Engine 230 were operating a line on the second-floor and were buried under tons of bricks and timbers when the roof went in. Fearing that numerous firefighters were trapped in the rubble, a fourth-alarm was struck to assist in rescue operations. Firefighters, police officers, and civilians alike worked with their bare hands digging out men who were buried in the collapse. When one of the firefighters was found, he was still clutching the nozzle in his hands. He was removed to a waiting ambulance and died at the hospital without ever regaining consciousness. The other firefighter’s body was so severely mangled that he could only be identified by pieces of his clothing. A total of forty-nine other firefighters were injured, including two chief officers, suffering injuries ranging from skull fractures to broken arms and legs. Twenty-five were given emergency treatment at the scene and then rushed to area hospitals via taxicabs and ambulances. The remainder were treated at the scene and remained on duty.
8/21/1963 three Ashland, MA firefighters “died while operating at a fire at the Central Coal Company on Rte. 9 in Framingham. A coal shed caught fire, which spread to an oil tank that exploded. The three firefighters were the closest to the tank when it exploded. Another 20 people, including a number of other firefighters, were injured.”
8/21/1981 two Dallas, TX firefighter were “killed while searching for occupants in a house under construction when a portion of the roof collapsed trapping them. The second firefighter died from the injuries he sustained that day, on September 1, 1981.” “Both firefighters would don their gear and board the rig to meet a three-alarm blaze at a 10,000 square foot residence near the intersection of Preston and Arapaho roads. The fire, which took 45 firefighters more than two hours to extinguish, started accidentally in the newly constructed home of a prominent Dallas developer. Both firefighters were searching for occupants in the partially furnished house when a portion of the roof collapsed and blocked the route by which they had entered. It is thought that a “backdraft,” a burst of fire caused when flammable gases in the smoke ignite, also made escape impossible. Both heroes were found near a picture window in the dining area, where they apparently were attempting to escape–victims of smoke inhalation. The window, made of double-paned tempered glass, was unbreakable.”
8/21/1986 the eruption of lethal gas (carbon dioxide) from Lake Nyos, a crater lake, about a mile square located in a remote mountain in Cameroon, Central Africa, killed nearly 2,000 people and wipes out four villages. “Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are both crater lakes about a mile square located in remote mountain areas of northwest Cameroon, dominated by rock cliffs and lush vegetation.”
8/21/1967 liquid propylene tank truck crashed and exploded that killed twelve in Martelange, Belgium. “Propene, also known as propylene or methylethylene, is an unsaturated organic compound having the chemical formula C3H6. It has one double bond, and is the second simplest member of the alkene class of hydrocarbons.”
8/21/1941 Missoula, MT a fire destroyed the grandstand of the Western Montana Fair, a livestock building, 21 automobiles, and the tepee village of the Flathead Indian tribe; “no lives were lost, although the grandstand was packed when the alarm was sounded.”
8/21/1883 Rochester, Minnesota a very severe tornado raged through Rochester during the night, twenty-four died and fifty or more were injured in town. A passenger train on the Rochester & Northern road was blown from the track and one-hundred were killed and wounded.
