9/1/1972 The Blue Bird Café and the Wagon Wheel, a country and western bar, fire in Montreal, Canada killed thirty-seven, a result of arson at the nightclub where more than 200 people were celebrating the Labor Day weekend. Three excessively intoxicated young men were refused entry around 10:45 p.m. and set a fire on the staircase that served as the only regular exit from the Wagon Wheel. “With the primary escape route blocked by the fire advancing upward toward the crowded bar, its patrons sought out other exits. However, conflicting city building codes and fire regulations had left the upstairs bar with too few fire-exits for its capacity of patrons. With the bar’s main exit aflame and sole fire exit blocked, patrons were forced to use one of two escape routes: either through the kitchen onto a folding fire escape or by climbing through a window in the women’s restroom and dropping some 20 feet onto a parked car.”
9/1/1918 a Victoria, British Columbia, Canada firefighter “was killed when too much pressure built up in a hand extinguisher and it exploded. He was attending a grass fire, a common event at that time of year.”
9/1/1931 three CalFire, Mariposa R U. Stanislaus Forest firefighters died “while fighting the Coffee Mill Fire, they were caught or trapped by the fire and burned over. They did not survive.”
9/1/1938 two Ft Worth Fire, Texas firefighters died “while fighting a garage fire at 1400 Commerce, they were in the alley and were buried when a wall fell on them, crushing them. Two other firefighters were injured.”
9/1/1963 a Cleveland, OH firefighter “died as a result of injuries sustained in a massive explosion while operating at a propane leak at the Avis Truck Rental Company garage fire, 1204 Carnegie Avenue S.E., on August 13, 1963. Two firefighters were killed instantly in the blast, and a third firefighter died on August 15, 1963 as a result of the injuries sustained. His death brought the final death toll to four.
9/1/1964 a San Francisco, CA firefighter “died of injuries he sustained after operating at an apartment house fire, which involved back draft, at 491 Valencia.”
9/1/1973 a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York (FDNY) firefighter died when he was overcome at a two-alarm cellar fire.
9/1/1976 two Tuscaloosa, AL firefighters died at a silo fire. “Firefighters had responded to the Gulf States Paper Corp for a fire in a 3-story bin that had been burning for quite a while. The first firefighter took a group of firefighters and entered the Silo from the top to estimate where the fire was located. It was realized that it was down near the bottom, so they exited the silo. He was the last man up, and as he was about to exit, when he fell back into the silo do to the fumes. The second firefighter descended a rope ladder, in an attempt to rescue first, but was also overcome and both members were buried in the silo. Firefighters had to cut holes in the side, to remove the bodies of the fallen.”
9/1/1981 a Dallas, TX firefighter “died from injuries he received while working at a fire on August 21, 1981. While searching for occupants in a house under construction, a portion of the roof collapsed trapping him and a second firefighter, who died on the day of the fire.”
9/1/2015 a 61-year-old grandmother and two children ages 3 and 8 years, died and another child was critically injured in a Tampa, Florida house fire with no smoke alarms at 39th and Paris Streets. The fire started from an overloaded power strip, or surge protector in the northeast bedroom; when firefighters arrived they “found the building engulfed with heavy smoke and flames.” One firefighter was injured during fire fighting operations.
9/1/2013 an eleven-alarm fire destroyed the Dietz & Watson cold storage facility in Delanco, Burlington County in southern New Jersey; 200 firefighters from 44 different companies worked for more than 16 hours to control the fire.
9/1/1955 the Chicago (IL) Fire Department, fought a 5-11 Alarm fire & 5 Specials at the Carr Consolidated Biscuit Company in Chicago at 1453 W. 37th Street. The building was completely destroyed.
9/1/1923 an earthquake conflagration killed 142,807 in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan.
9/1/1908 Waterville, ME an airship (dirigible) in flight burned and killed the pilot in front of 25,000 spectators at the Maine fair grounds.
9/1/1899 a boiler explosion at the Republic Iron Works in Pittsburgh, PA killed five.
9/1/1894 Hinckley MN a forest fire killed 413 and destroyed 480 square miles in the logging and railroad center. A drought made for tinder-dry conditions of the cutover forests, the result of unregulated logging practices. A fire storm destroyed the depot and several houses, and swept northward through the towns of Mission Creek, Brook Park and Hinckley all heavily damaged.
9/1/2004 armed Chechen separatist rebels entered a school in southern Russia and took more than 1,000 people hostages, 340 about half of them children, died in the three-day ordeal.
9/1/1998, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 goes into effect requiring all cars & light trucks sold in the U.S. have air bags on both sides of the front seat.