OIL CITY, LA: DEC. 1, 1911 – Two large fires blazed in separate areas of the rich Caddo oil fields. One fire destroyed half of the boomtown known as Oil City, including the Stag Hotel and Delmonico Hotel, several restaurants and cafes and a number of homes. Firefighters and oil-field workers saved the Norman Hotel during a desperate struggle. One worker was seriously injured when he fell from the roof of the hotel. It was said that disgruntled squatters might have set the fire. The second fire occurred in the Gulf Refining plant when a forest fire moved to within 600 feet of storage tanks containing 6,000 barrels of oil. Volunteer firefighters set backfires to clear brush near the plant and halt the spreading flames.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY: DEC. 2, 1911 – A gas explosion shook the fashionable girl’s boarding school known as the Glen Eden Seminary just after breakfast was served. Most of the students were still away on their Thanksgiving vacation, but 20 were still in the building when the blast occurred. Teachers hurried through the hallways and helped to evacuate the students as the gas-fed fire spread. A hasty bucket brigade of students and teachers, many still in their nightclothes and without jackets, was established until the firemen and their chemical apparatus arrived. Firemen battled the stubborn blaze for more than an hour.
JERSEY CITY, NJ: DEC. 4, 1911 – Four major fires within a 10-hour period taxed the resources of the Jersey City Fire Department and required two general alarms and mutual aid to extinguish the fires during a raging blizzard. The first fire, at 2 A.M., was in a block-long, four-story brick stable that housed 400 horses and 150 wagons. A collapsing wall critically injured Lieutenant William Bergen of Engine 3 and Fireman John Kelly Engine 10. The flames also killed the building watchman. The fire then spread to a dozen adjoining tenements, driving scores of families into the driving snow. As this fire was being fought, a blaze in a hotel on Oldberg Road was discovered and fire engines responded through the snow-clogged streets to extinguish it. Later, at 11 A.M., a fire was reported in a box factory that occupied an entire block at Golden and Varrick streets. Strong winds whipped the flames throughout the five-story building, said to be one of the largest box companies in the nation. The fire then jumped the street and ignited a lumber and coal yard, which in turn spread the flames to several more buildings. Mutual aid was requested from Hoboken and New York City.
PHILADELPHIA, PA: DEC. 6, 1911 – A leaking gas pipe exploded, setting fire to the Marie Apartments at Sixteenth and Spruce streets. Firemen were faced with an advanced fire and numerous persons trapped as they rolled in. Eight women were rescued and several were injured as they jumped. Firemen pushed into the thick, noxious smoke and dragged several people out unconscious. Three firemen were overcome by smoke, three others were injured by falling glass and Fireman George W. Gaw was critically injured during the rescue work.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN: DEC. 7, 1911 – A concrete building under construction collapsed at noon during the lunch break, killing four men and injuring 21 others. Firemen began rescue work and also had to fight fires within the rubble. A priest was called to the scene to give one trapped man last rites. Luckily, the man was rescued a short while later and suffered only minor injuries.
NEW HAVEN, CT: DEC. 10, 1911 – An early-morning fire nearly destroyed an entire four-story, brick wholesale grocery warehouse at State and Water streets. Firemen faced three floors of fire upon arrival within the huge structure. Despite the advanced fire, the department contained the fire to the original building. Damage was estimated at $250,000.
BURLINGTON, NJ: DEC. 19, 1911 – A trolley car carrying three employees and eight passengers plunged into the Assiscunk Creek when the entire 80-foot span of the iron bridge they were crossing collapsed beneath them. The motorman applied emergency brakes as the car slid down and kept it from total submersion. A passerby pulled a fire-alarm box and firemen arrived quickly to aid in the rescue work. A team of workers from a nearby lumber mill took a boat to the partially submerged trolley car, chopped a hole through the roof and pulled several people to safety. Another rescue team chopped away iron window bars that trapped several other riders. Firemen placed ladders and used ropes to help pull the victims from the wreckage.
BOSTON, MA: DEC. 24, 1911 – More than one million gallons of molasses were destroyed by a fire in the wharves and buildings of the Boston Molasses Co. on the eastern banks of Fort Point Channel in South Boston. Firemen were hampered in their extinguishment efforts when an 800,000-gallon tank collapsed, spreading a thick sticky mass across the area. Firemen had to wade through the goo to operate, but protected and saved a three-million gallon tank nearby. (On Jan. 15, 1919, a Boston molasses tank burst with tragic results. That incident killed 21 people, including Fireman George Layhe of Engine 31.)
GREENWICH, CT: DEC. 28, 1911 – Gale-force winds spread flames through a sanitarium on Palmer’s Hill. The fire apparently started near the first-floor fireplace and spread upward through the stairway. Twenty patients were asleep in the rooms above when the fire was discovered. Heroic work by the doctors and staff safely removed everyone, including an infant. Greenwich volunteer firemen responded six miles with their chemical engine and saved a neighboring home that was being bombarded with flaming embers driven by the winds. Firemen also then saved a stable that ignited in similar fashion. The sanitarium was a total loss, including all the furniture that had been removed to the lawn before it too ignited and burned.
CLEVELAND, OH: DEC. 29, 1911 – Firemen made a difficult rescue from a blazing apartment above a burning bakery. The fire started in the ovens on the first floor in the rear and spread quickly, trapping the baker’s family above. Firemen reached the mother and her 10-year old son in the front second-floor bedroom, but could not reach four other children trapped in a fire-filled room in the rear.
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA: DEC. 29, 1911 – A fire fanned by 40-mph winds destroyed the King Edward Hotel, one of the largest buildings in the city. Firemen faced near-zero temperatures as they struggled to get water on the blazing five-story wooden structure. Mutual aid from Dartmouth and the assistance of 200 sailors from the Canadian cruiser Niobe joined local firemen to battle the flames. All 150 patrons of the hotel escaped safely and the combined efforts of the ice-clad firefighters contained the flames to the original building.
PAUL HASHAGEN, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is a retired FDNY firefighter who was assigned to Rescue 1 in Manhattan. He is also an ex-chief of the Freeport, NY, Fire Department. Hashagen is the author of FDNY: The Bravest, An Illustrated History 1865-2002, the official history of the New York City Fire Department, and other fire service books. His latest novel, Fire of God, is available at dmcfirebooks.com.
