On 9/23/2005 a fire on a bus near Dallas, Texas killed twenty-four of the thirty-eight elderly residents and six employees evacuating from Hurricane Rita on a gridlocked highway. The fire was accelerated by patients’ oxygen making it too hot to rescue the victims. The fire may have been caused by the brakes. “The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a 17-mile (27-kilometer) backup on Interstate 45, already heavily congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast. The bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, surrounded by numerous police cars and ambulances. Interstate 45 stretches more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Galveston through Houston to Dallas. The site is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) southeast of downtown Dallas. There were indications that oxygen used by elderly evacuees could have had a role in the fire. There were a series of explosions, apparently from the oxygen equipment.”
On 9/23/2007 firefighters “battled a multi-alarm fire involving the exterior finish panels of a high-rise tower building under construction at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa complex in the coastal resort city of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The unusual fire involved aluminum composite exterior panels with a polyethylene core that began near the base of the 43-story tower and raced up the entire height of the building. The Water Club Tower was being built near the existing 42-story Borgata Hotel and Casino tower. Constructed as a Type I Fire Resistive concrete and steel high-rise with glass curtain walls and aluminum exterior cladding, the building was to have more than 800 guest rooms, a two-story “spa in the sky”, five swimming pools, and other luxury amenities. The structure was being built adjacent to the casino and convention complex in the Marina District. The 457-foot-tall tower, scheduled to be completed in early 2008, would be one of the tallest buildings in Atlantic City.”
On 9/23/1896 a Savannah, Georgia firefighter “fell 40 feet to his death through an open grating, while operating at an arson fire in a wholesale grocery warehouse.”
On 9/23/1909 a Topeka, Kansas firefighter “was killed when he was caught under a falling wall while fighting a fire at the Kuehne Vinegar Works.”
On 9/23/1911 six Louisville, Kentucky Salvage Corps (firefighters) lost their lives and a seventh member died after lingering several years from injuries he suffered while responding to a fire in a Salvage Corps vehicle, when a six-story wall of the David Baird & Son millinery located at 511-513 West Main collapsed on them. (The Louisville Salvage Corps in Louisville, Kentucky was disbanded, and the agency was absorbed by the Louisville Fire Department).”
On 9/23/1924 a Richmond, Indiana firefighter died “from the injuries he sustained after a wall collapsed while operating at a fire at Earlham College.”
On 9/23/1939 a Toledo, Ohio firefighter “died of a heart attack during firefighting operations in a warehouse at Lagrange & Water.”
On 9/23/1950 two Boston, Massachusetts firefighters “died from smoke inhalation from burning mattresses in the basement of the Weiner-Eagle Mattress factory at 38-42 Everett Street, Allston, Box 5235, (Everett Street, opposite #52) at 4:28 a.m.”
On 9/23/2012 in Unionville Tennessee a man and a woman, both in their 70s along with two children, aged 9 and 7, died in a house fire.
On 9/23/1968 the Glen Casino Amusement Park in Williamsville, New York was destroyed by fire.
On 9/23/1953 a U.S. Army underground fuel tank explosion killed thirty-four in Bitburg, Germany.
On 9/23/1916 the Phoenix, New York town conflagration started “leaping from building to building, across the canal and from one side of Canal Street to the other, the flames destroyed nearly every building in the business section of the village.”
On 9/23/1915 a fire in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire destroyed forty-five buildings, including five hotels, scores of cottages, two theaters, and many businesses were leveled before the fire was controlled by dynamite. The fire started in a box of rubbish.
On 9/23/1908 a lodging house fire killed one and injured another in San Francisco, California in a two-story lodging house at 211 Gough Street.
On 9/23/1907 the Oswego (New York) Normal School fire, a four-story wooden and stone building used as a dormitory, resulted in over a hundred young girls fleeing their rooms. “The fire was discovered in the laundry, in the basement of the building. Soon the first and second floors were filled with smoke.”
On 9/23/1892 in New York, New York panic left four dead when someone yelled fire in a synagogue.
On 9/23/1892 in Battle Creek, Michigan the Union School Furniture Company fire destroyed the factory, office, and four other buildings.
On 9/23/1898 near Brownsville, Pennsylvania the Umpire Mine gas explosion entombed seventy men one-fourth of a mile below town.
On 9/23/1895 a blast furnace fire extended to a lumber yard in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
On 9/23/2004 Hurricane Jeanne slammed into Haiti, killing thousands, just days after Hurricane Ivan. Jeanne was part of a series of deadly storms to hit the region during the 2004 hurricane season.