July 2, 1903: BROOKLYN, NY - Shortly after 6 P.M., passengers on a crowded elevated subway train faced a rather harrowing experience. When one of the cars of the three-car train became disabled in the Williamsburg section, it was decided the next train following would push it into the station. As the train arrived at the station the friction in the rear motor set the motor on fire, and the fire quickly extended to the wooden train car. As the train slowly passed through the station the passenger jumped clear of the burning train onto the platform, the blazing train continued on to avoid spreading the fire to the station structure. The train continued until the fire engulfed the entire car. Firemen arrived quickly and extinguished the fire.
July 5, 1903: ST. JOSEPH, MO - The main building of the Hammond Packing plant was destroyed by an afternoon fire. Two plant workers lost their lives battling the flames. The fire also threatened two nearby plants, but firemen were able to hold the fire to the original structure.
July 13, 1903: SAG HARBOR, NY - An early-morning fire destroyed six stores in the town's business center. Hildreth's cafe, Ludlow's saloon, Meyer's clothing, Hertz's china, Payne Brothers restaurant and Field's market were left in smoldering ruins. A woman was rescued from an apartment above the saloon.
July 13, 1903: WILKES-BARRE, PA - Firemen raced to a reported explosion at the Laflin Powder Works. Upon their arrival, they were faced with three buildings destroyed with men trapped in the press building. Two seriously injured men were removed, and three dead men were located and removed.
July 13, 1903: NEWARK, NJ - Firemen responded to an explosion and fire in a leather factory on Kossuth Street. The exploding tank of naphtha critically burned one man and left the wooden structure in flames.
July 16, 1903: BONNER SPRINGS, KS - Four people lost their lives in an early- morning fire in the Bonner Springs Sanitarium. Thirty people escaped the blaze, and one of those who was killed lost his life attempting to rescue a trapped person.
July 16, 1903: PINE HILLS, NY - An electrical fire burned the Mountain Inn, a Catskills summer hotel, to the ground. One hundred thirty people were driven out of the smoke-filled hotel in their nightclothes. Several spectacular rescues were made by rescuers pulling people from upper-floor windows.
July 17, 1903: JERSEY CITY, NJ - A collapsing wall injured several firemen who were battling a blaze at a Steuben Street mill building. The flames spread to several buildings, and firemen were struggling to stop the extension using ladders to gain access to upper floors when the wall failed.
Time Capsule
JULY 1903: PIER FIRES SWEEP JERSEY CITY WATERFRONT
On July 5, Pier H, one of three new piers recently built in Jersey City, NJ, by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was the scene of a spectacular afternoon blaze. The blaze grew with such great rapidity that the original small fire that was discovered had spread to the entire interior of the structure before the alarm could be transmitted.
Eight engines and eight trucks responded, with three engines and two ladder trucks becoming disabled in deep mud along the track beds. Several tugboats and fireboats from New York City joined forces with the Jersey City firemen to prevent the flames from extending to the adjacent pier structures.
On July 9, a fire roared through the new pier of the Scandinavian-American Steamship Company. The same response of firefighting equipment this time had better success as the fire was halted before the entire structure was ablaze.
Paul Hashagen, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is a retired FDNY firefighter who was assigned to Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan. He is also an ex-chief of the Freeport, NY, Fire Department. Hashagen is the author of FDNY 1865-2000: Millennium Book, a history of the New York City Fire Department, and other fire service history books.
