Four Firefighters Fatally Burned During Fire and Explosion at Gasoline Transfer Station – Refiners Oil Company – Cincinnati, Ohio – August 5, 1920
On August 5, 1920, three Cincinnati firefighters were fatally burned and another firefighter received serious burns that led to his death the next day when three above ground gasoline storage tanks exploded during a fire at the Refiners Oil Company fuel transfer station in the southwestern area of the city. The fire was started after friendly horseplay between two company employees resulted in setting the oil-soaked work clothing of one of the men on fire. The flames then spread to three nearby gasoline storage tanks. As firefighters arrived on the scene, one of the tanks exploded, spewing flaming gasoline on four members of Hook & Ladder Company 4. Lieutenant Fred Hotel and Fireman Joseph Schott died at the scene from severe burns. Fireman Lee West died several hours later in the hospital and Fireman Albert Schoenig succumbed to his injuries the next day. Five other persons were injured in the fire and explosion. The year 1920 was a terrible year for Cincinnati firefighters. Ten city firefighters were killed in a variety of incidents, including four members killed in the fire collapse of a burning four-story warehouse. This remains the worst year for firefighter deaths in the history of the Cincinnati Fire Department.
The structure involved in the incident was a gasoline and oil transfer station located in a yard near the intersection of Depot and South Streets in an industrial area about two miles west of Downtown Cincinnati. The fuel transfer station was typical for the era with three, 1000-gallon above ground gasoline tanks mounted near an electric pump used for transferring fuel from larger storage tanks on the property. The smaller tanks, which were surrounding by a wooden fence, were used for refilling the company’s fleet of gasoline transport tank trucks.
Cincinnati is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County in the state of Ohio. Settled in 1788, the city is located in the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area and has an estimated population of 2,265,051. The almost 80 square mile city had a 2020 U.S. census population of 309,317 and is about 100 miles southwest of Columbus and 100 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky. Throughout much of the 1800s, Cincinnati was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population. The city developed as a river town for cargo shipping by steamboats, located at the crossroads of the Northern and Southern United States. It later developed an industrialized economy in manufacturing.
The Cincinnati Fire Department traces its roots to 1853 and is said to be the nation’s oldest fully paid professional fire department. By 1920, the department had 53 engine companies, 15 ladder companies, and 3 water towers staffed by 611 paid members. A Gamewell telegraph fire alarm system with 776 street fire call boxes and a strong water system with more than 6,700 fire hydrants and a backup water supply from 300 street fire cisterns provided further protection to the city. Much of the apparatus was gasoline-powered as the department was transitioning from horse-drawn apparatus to a fully motorized fleet by 1922. Today the 874 sworn members of the department protect the city operating from 26 fire stations staffing 26 engine companies, 12 ladder companies. 2 heavy rescue companies, 12 medic transport units, 3 ALS supervisors, 1 safety captain, 1 bomb unit, 3 foam units, 1 fireboat, 3 inflatable rescue boats, and 4 district chiefs. The department responds to about 16,000 fire incidents and 60,000 EMS incidents annually.
On Thursday, August 5, 1920, at about 5:30 p.m., Harry Smallwood, age 19, a driver for the Refiners Oil Company, was engaged in a friendly scuffle with George Davis, another company driver, at the company’s yard located at Depot and South Streets. In his mouth, Smallwood was chewing on a wooden matchstick. Somehow during the horseplay, the match struck a hard surface and ignited. Smallwood’s gasoline-soaked work clothing immediately caught fire. As other employees tried to douse the flames engulfing Smallwood, the fire spread to a wooden fence surrounding three above ground 1000-gallon gasoline tanks.
One of the tanks was being filled at the time and began overflowing before employees were able to shut down the flow. As the gasoline ran down the side of the tank, the fire jumped from the fence to the fuel spill causing a blaze on the ground beneath the tank. The employees, realizing the seriousness of the fire exposing the gasoline tanks, immediately called the fire department.
Cincinnati fire units including the members of Hook & Ladder Company 8 and Engine Company 25 stationed only a block away, immediately responded. As the members drove out of their quarters, they observed the flames and one of the members stopped to turn in a box alarm. The motorized apparatus of the ladder company reached the scene ahead of Engine Company 25, one of the few companies still equipped with a horse-drawn steam engine. Members of the ladder company under the command of Lieutenant Fred Hotel rushed into the yard of the oil company with hand extinguishers. They had just turned on their extinguishers and started to fight the flames when one of the gasoline tanks exploded, less than five minutes after the fire started.
Four members of the ladder company were in the path of the flood of burning gasoline. Lieutenant Hotel and Fireman Joseph Schott were covered with flaming gasoline and died on the spot; their bodies burned to a crisp. Firemen Lee West and Albert Schoenig, caught in the flood of blazing fuel, struggled to escape. By almost superhuman effort they were able to stagger from the yard to the sidewalk.
Spectators and fellow firemen were unable to see their faces because of the flames from their gasoline-drenched clothing. As they staggered, fell and half-dragged themselves from the sea of burning oil, they were human torches. The men pleaded with policemen to “Shoot me!” as they stumbled from the flow of liquid fire. Finally, both men crumpled to the ground unconscious.
A local undertaker hurried to the scene in his ambulance to render assistance to the injured firemen. Both grievously burned men were transported to City Hospital where Fireman Lee West suffered for several hours before succumbing to his burn injuries. Fireman Albert Schoenig died the next day.
The bodies of Lieutenant Hotel and Fireman Schott were removed to the county morgue where they were identified by family members. Two watches, which fell out of the burned firemen’s pockets, were found by police. Both had stopped at 5:45 p.m.
The explosion occurred so soon after the fire originated that the members of Engine Company 25 had not yet had time to enter the yard. They were busy laying hoselines and coupling the engine to a nearby fire hydrant. Lieutenant Hotel’s last order saved the life of Fireman Elmer Drier, the only unharmed member of Hook & Ladder Company 8. Drier had accompanied the members into the yard, but Hotel ordered him to return to the ladder truck to get an additional extinguisher. Drier had just reached the street when the blast occurred.
The explosion of the first tank caused the other two tanks to also explode. The blasts followed so closely that the explosions sounded like one huge blast. One of the tanks was blown across the street and went through the roof of the one-story frame building of the Kelly-Roth Company auto body builders. The building ignited, but the fire was put out without much damage to the structure. Several spectators were injured when sprayed with burning gasoline during the explosion.
Another tank was blown into the street, where its 1000 gallons of fuel were released and spread in all directions like a huge lake of fire. The third tank was blown against the side of the company’s building igniting the roof of the oil company plant.
Leonard Westcott, District Fire Marshal, who arrived a few seconds after the explosion, sent in a second alarm. Additional companies arriving under the command of Acting Fire Chief Clem Beckman soon had the fire under control.
Witnesses told police flames from the exploding tanks shot 100 feet in the air and several hundred feet in all directions. “Gyp” Henderson, driver, and William Wieman, engineer of Engine Company 25 had just unhooked the horses, who were spooked by the blast and ran. They were stopped by bystanders a block away. The steam engine was scorched and damaged in the blast and had to be towed from the scene.
The fire destroyed three vehicles in the yard of the oil company. Two were trucks owned by the company and the other was the property of a contract driver. The monetary loss to the firm did not exceed $5,000. Little damage was done to the building.
Harry Smallwood, who suffered severe burns to his face and chest later told investigators, “I was kidding around with George Davis, another driver. I had a match in my mouth as I made a motion to strike at Davis, and in doing this the match was ignited. The other drivers chased Davis, and I discovered my clothes were on fire. As I beat out the blaze, the fire spread along the fence. In another moment the flames had spread to the three tanks from which we fill our wagons, I ran, and the next thing I heard was the explosion.” Smallwood declined to go to the hospital, although he was severely burned.
R.P. Hamilton, acting manager of the oil company, told investigators that he could give no other explanation of the accident other than the account given by his driver, Smallwood. He said that employees were warned against smoking in the plant or even carrying matches.
Following the fatal blast, Cincinnati Fire Inspector Edward Steinway pushed for legislation requiring oil companies to place all fuel tanks underground, encased in concrete. “It’s the safest way to handle oil and gasoline. An explosion, such as occurred at the Refiners Oil Company killing those firemen, could not have happened if the tanks had been under ground.” By city ordinance, retailers of gasoline who dispense over a certain amount of fuel must have their tanks buried underground, but fuel transfer depots were not included in the ordinance, Steinway said.
Members of the Cincinnati Fire Department fatally injured in the line of duty at the Refiners Oil Company Explosion on August 5, 1920:
- Lieutenant Frederick John Hotel, age 42, was a 12-year member of the Cincinnati Fire Department assigned to Hook & Ladder Company 8. He was survived by his wife and three children. Funeral services were held on August 7, 1920, at the funeral parlors of Charles E. Meyer on Vine Street. He was buried at Vine Street Cemetery in Cincinnati.
- Fireman Joseph Schott, age 40, was a 12-year member of the Cincinnati Fire Department assigned to Hook & Ladder Company 8. He was survived by his wife, Stella and two daughters, Marcella, age 13, and Esther, age 11; and one brother, Thomas. Funeral services were held on August 7, 1920, at the Schott home on State Avenue with interment following at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
- Fireman Lee F. West, age 31, was a one-year member of the Cincinnati Fire Department assigned as a driver to Hook & Ladder Company 8. West was unmarried. Funeral services were held on August 8 at the Peter Rebold & Son’s chapel with interment following in Miamitown, Ohio.
- Fireman Albert A. Schoenig, age 29, was a member of the Cincinnati Fire Department assigned to Hook & Ladder Company 8. He was survived by his wife, Marguerite, and two sons, Albert, age 3, and Robert, age 1; his mother and a brother. Funeral services were held on August 10, 1920, at the Church of the Nativity in Pleasant Ridge with burial following at Saint Mary Cemetery in Saint Bernard, Hamilton County, Ohio.
The year 1920 was a terrible year for Cincinnati firefighters as ten city firefighters were killed in a variety of incidents. On January 17, 1920, four Cincinnati firefighters were fatally injured when the wall of a burning four-story warehouse collapsed onto them while they were operating hoselines from a bridge viaduct adjacent to the building. The year remains the worst year for firefighter deaths in the history of the Cincinnati Fire Department.
The names of Lieutenant Fred J. Hotel and Firemen Joseph Schott, Lee West, and Albert Schoenig have been honored at the Greater Cincinnati Firefighters Memorial at 537 Central Avenue in Downtown Cincinnati. An annual service was held at the park on Memorial Day for many years honoring the deceased members of the Cincinnati Fire Department. The event is now held on Wednesday of Fire Prevention Week in October. In 2010, the park was redesigned, and the scope expanded to encompass firefighters throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The Memorial was officially rededicated on October 6, 2010.
The site of the fatal incident in now occupied by a vacant lot and a one-story warehouse. There is no memorial marker at the site.
Commentary:
Many of the safety features that are now found in modern motor fuel storage and dispensing stations are a direct result of this and other similar tragic events. Underground fuel storage tanks, automatic fuel overfill shutoffs, and emergency pump shutdown switches are but a few of the required safety systems that are now mandated. In some jurisdictions, fire suppression systems are also required.
This incident shares many similarities with another firefighter fatality incident involving the explosion of gasoline storage tanks:
On August 18, 1959, the Kansas City Fire Department was hit with their largest loss of life in the line of duty to date when a 25,000-gallon gasoline tank at an automotive service station exploded during a fire on Southwest Boulevard, killing five firefighters. One civilian was also killed in the blast. This was the first time the term “BLEVE” (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) was used to describe the explosion of a burning fuel tank. The fire changed the way flammable liquids were stored at automotive service stations and how flammable liquid fires were fought involving horizontal storage tanks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/192218352449074/permalink/1303361434668088/
We have attached photos and illustrations from the incident. We have also attached an article published by Mike Ciampo in Fire Engineering magazine on firefighting hazards at gasoline stations: https://www.fireengineering.com/technical-rescue/on-fire-mike-ciampo-fill-it-up/
Thanks to multiple media sources for the content of this article.
Honor the service of Lieutenant Fred J. Hotel and Firemen Joseph Schott, Lee West, and Albert Schoenig by touring a motor fuel storage and dispensing station in your local response district and by reviewing the fuel safety equipment installed at the facility with your crew members today.
Remember Fallen Brothers.
Get Out There And Know Your Local!!!
Newspaper illustration of the incident.
Newspaper illustration of the incident.
