KNOX CITY, TX: NOV. 1, 1912 – Just after midnight, a fire started in a frame building where oil was stored. The flames rapidly spread to three small frame buildings that quickly became fully involved. The radiant heat ignited a concrete, two-story building occupied by the First National Bank, the telephone exchange and law offices.
ST. LOUIS, MO: NOV. 2, 1912 – Four people died when a fire swept through the Berlin Hotel. It was just after midnight when flames were seen in a closet on the second floor of the three-story building. Thick smoke soon filled guest rooms and hallways, panicking guests. A responding fire apparatus collided with a streetcar, seriously injuring several firefighters. A 17-year-old maid was charged with arson after attempting to set a fire in the Windermer Hotel, where she had been relocated after the first blaze.
NEW YORK CITY: NOV. 5, 1912 – An Election Day tradition of igniting bonfires got out of control when several boys stacked empty wood crates beneath a large canvas-covered produce wagon on Franklin Street and set it ablaze. Within minutes, the boxes, the wagon and its contents were a mass of flames. Arriving firemen had an unusual exposure problem – the nearby “Tombs” prison. Four engines, four hose companies, two ladder companies and a water tower battled their way through a crowd of 2,000 onlookers who were cheering the boys on. Police reserves dispersed the crowd and the fire was extinguished quickly.
MONTZ, LA: NOV. 11, 1912 – Fourteen people were killed and 90 were injured when a Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad passenger train was rammed by a freight train. The passenger cars telescoped, trapping numerous people as their train caught fire. Passengers were rescued with great difficulty and it is believed no one burned to death in the wreckage.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY: NOV. 18, 1912 – During the early-morning hours, the owner of the Bonny Brae Inn was fast asleep when his dog, “Mutt,” began pulling at the bedsheets, trying to wake his master. When the man woke, he was startled to see his dog, singed head to foot, and his room filling with smoke and fire. The man donned his coat, picked up his dog and jumped out the window. He then ran to the front door and dashed inside to wake the maids. Everyone escaped just before the inn burned to the ground.
COLOMA, MI: NOV. 27, 1912 – An explosion during a motion picture show started a quick-spreading fire. The projector operator suffered serious burns and several women were injured as the crowd hustled to leave the theater. The fire spread and soon was sweeping a block of wooden buildings. The Benton Harbor Fire Department was called for mutual aid.
CHICAGO, IL: NOV. 29, 1912 – A basement fire in the Armour & Co. provisions house, in the Union Stock Yards, destroyed the three-story brick building. Firemen confined the fire to this building and protected the adjoining fertilizer plant. The fire occurred less than 100 feet from the site of the Morris & Co. warehouse fire, where Fire Chief James J. Horan and 21 of his men were lost in 1910.
COLLEGE PARK, MD: NOV. 30, 1912 – A fire broke out in the upper story of the new administration building of the Maryland Agricultural College at about 10:30 P.M. Apparently ignited by defective electric wiring, the blaze drove students attending a Thanksgiving dance from the burning building. Students and faculty attempted to stop the spreading fire with a small hose, but were driven back as flames quickly spread to the adjoining administration building. By midnight, the administration building had collapsed and two hours later, the original fire building was a smoldering ruin. When the Hyattsville Fire Department arrived, firemen faced an advanced fire and a major water supply problem, but they saved the exposed Science Hall, about 50 feet from the administration building. Two companies from the Washington, DC, Fire Department also responded.
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.
