9/8/1934 SS Morro Castle fire killed 137 of the 549 passengers and crew off New Jersey coast. A luxury cruise ship in route from Havana to New York, caught fire and burned around 2:50 a.m. The ship was sailing about eight nautical miles off Long Beach Island. A fire was detected in a storage locker in the First-Class Writing Room on B Deck and burned through the ship’s main electrical cables at 3:10 a.m. plunging the ship into darkness, losing the radio, and the ability to steer the ship. Within 30 minutes the ship became engulfed in flames. Only six of the ship’s 12 lifeboats were launched; “the decision became either “jump or burn” for many passengers. However, jumping into the water was problematic as well. The sea, whipped by high winds, churned in great waves that made it extremely difficult to swim.” The ship beached near Asbury Park, NJ. “The use of fire-retardant materials, automatic fire doors, ship-wide fire alarms, and greater attention to fire drills and procedures resulted directly from the Morro Castle disaster.”
9/8/1872 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “died as a result of critical burns he sustained on September 6, 1872, when he came in contact with flaming kerosene oil.”
9/8/1935 two Los Angeles, CA firefighters died at the Mission Painted Fabrics Company fire in the plant located at 2481 E. 4th Street. The fire was discovered 10:16 p.m. on September 7th, by the Superintendent, who immediately notified the fire department and Engine Companies 2, 5 and 24, with Truck Companies 17 and 24; also Salvage 24 answered the alarm. “The building contained many volatile liquids used in waterproofing fabrics. Especially one dipping tank through which the fabrics were run to process them; this tank being an open one. Upon arrival of the fire companies, Engine 2, who was the first on the scene proceeded to lay lines into the building. The front openings proved to be accessible, and two firefighters entered at a point in front of the water proofing tank. The fire had spread so rapidly that it was necessary to enter at other points of the structure and Engine 2 entered with another line in the opposite opening at the front of the building. Almost simultaneously Engine Companies No. 5 and 24 had lines entering the building at the side and rear entrances. The fire was by this time covering the entire structure. It was quickly overcome and apparently no danger existed, the blaze having been extinguished. The pre-heated condition of the volatile liquids contained in the water-proofing tank caused a boil-over and re-igniting itself on the floor entrapped the two firefighters who were immediately enveloped in flames. Efforts were made to extinguish the flames enveloping the two men and accomplishment was made to a certain degree, but not in time to avert the deaths of two firefighters, one who would later die on September 12, 1935 from the injuries he sustained.”
9/8/1946 a Dayton, Ohio firefighter died while fighting a three-alarm fire at the Miller Auction Company located at 506 E. Third Street. “While fighting the fire, he was knocked off of a ladder placed at the rear of the building, by a stream of water and fell approximately 40 feet to the ground. He was removed to Miami Valley Hospital where he died just after midnight on September 8, 1946.”
9/8/1953 a Manhattan, New York (FDNY) firefighter “fell from a sixth-floor fire escape, at 231 to 233 East 118th Street, Manhattan on August 31, 1953. He was hit by a blast of hot air from the fire apartment. He landed in the rear yard and was rushed to Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital. He succumbed to his injuries on September 8. The fire started on the sixth floor when a religious candle was knocked over into a pile of clothes.”
9/8/1991 a New Orleans, Louisiana firefighter “was killed when hot gases caught fire in a motorcycle shop where the fire department had just put out a six-alarm fire. He was part of a “flying squad” that was searching out hotspots. After the flashover, the ceiling collapsed injuring three firefighters and killing one.”
9/8/2015 a fire on-board a British Airways Boeing 777 bound for London with 159 passengers and a crew of 13 was forced to return to McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. “The pilots immediately aborted takeoff and evacuated the passengers using emergency slides.”
9/8/1990 Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house fire at the University of California, Berkeley killed three students, injured two others, and building was heavily damaged. The 33-year-old, wood-frame, multistory fraternity house was a “L”-shaped structure with a large living room and sleeping room; all interior wall surfaces, including the exit stairways, were covered with wood paneling. The majority of the sleeping rooms had hollow core wood doors, with two exceptions that had solid-core wood doors. The doors separating the sleeping area from the assembly area were normally kept open; closing devices on exit stairway doors had been removed. The fire started when a couch in the assembly room was ignited with a butane lighter and extended to the room’s combustible interior finish, and the fire quickly spread to other areas.
9/8/1974 a fire in a 9th-floor room in an 11-story high-rise hotel destroyed the room and eventually extended to the nearby elevator lobby on that floor. A hotel employee who attempted to extinguish the fire was killed. Of significance in this fire are the delayed alarm and the failure of certain fire protection devices. The equipment that did not perform properly were doors for the exit stairway, doors to guest rooms, standpipe system, and dampers in bathroom exhaust ducts.
9/8/1949 San Francisco, CA a three-alarm fire in Chinatown displaced seventy-five persons.
9/8/1932 Llano, TX the Courthouse was damaged by fire.
9/8/1898 New York, NY the Vesey Street wine cellar explosion and fire killed three; around 5:20 p.m. when an explosion shook the five-story building of the liquor dealer.
9/8/1895 the Paxton Hotel fire in Chicago, IL started on the third floor of the four-story brick building at 100 and 102 Randolph Street.
9/8/1860 Waukegan, IL the Steamer Lady Elgin collision with a schooner claimed over three hundred lives and sunk within twenty minutes. “She had upward of 350 passengers aboard, including several military and fire companies. Only seventeen passengers have been saved as far as known.”