1844. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1852. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1865. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1878. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1918. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1919. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1924. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1930. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1930. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1937. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
1966. [LOC, USZ62-134241]
FIRE MUSEUMS TO VISIT
Many cities have fire museums where visitors can learn more about the history of firefighting.
Boston Fire Museum, 344 Congressional Street, Boston, MA 02210. Website: www.bostonfiremuseum.com.
Fire Museum of Greater Cincinnati, 115 West Court Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202. Website: www.cincyfiremuseum.com.
Fire Museum of Maryland, 1301 York Road, Luthersville, MD 21093. Website: www.firemuseummd.org.
Fireman’s Hall Museum, 147 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Website: www.firemanshall.org.
Hall of Flame, 6101 East Van Buren Street, Phoenix, AZ 85008. Website: www.hallofflame.org.
New York City Fire Museum, 278 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Website: www.nycfiremuseum.org.
San Francisco Fire Department Museum, 655 Presidio Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94115. Website: www.guardiansofthecity.org.
RECOMMENDED READING
Brown, Don. America Is Under Attack: The Day the Towers Fell. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2011.
Dwyer, Jim, and Kevin Flynn. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers. New York: Times Books, 2005.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Uprising. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Lee, Nancy, et al. A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath. New York: Scholastic, 2002.
Marrin, Albert. Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy. New York: Knopf, 2011.
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2006.
Nobleman, Marc Tyler. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. North Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2007.
O’Donnell, Edward T. Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
Tarshis, Lauren. I Survived #5: I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906. New York: Scholastic, 2012.
______. I Survived #6: I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001. New York: Scholastic, 2012.
WEBSITES TO VISIT
Chicago History Museum, The Great Chicago Fire:
www.greatchicagofire.org/great-chicago-fire
City University of New York, Great Fire of 1835:
www.virtualny.cuny.edu/FIRE/welcome.html
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Remembering the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire:
www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire
Encyclopedia Titanica, The General Slocum: The Horror of Fire at Sea:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/general-slocum.html
Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage Project, Great Baltimore Fire of 1904:
www.mdch.org/fire/
Mass Moments, Boston Burns, March 20, 1760:
www.massmoments.com
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire:
www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html
SOURCE NOTES
A note about citations: In most cases, quotations have not been altered and appear as originally written or published. In a few instances, punctuation or capitalization was adjusted to accommodate the incorporation of the quotation into the text.
Introduction
“dreadful city of fire”: Brett Howard, Boston: A Social History (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1976), p. 289.
1. Colonial America’s Biggest Fire: Boston, 1760
“noe man shall build his chimney”: Dennis Smith, History of Firefighting in America: 300 Years of Courage (New York: Dial Press, 1976), p. 3.
“no dwelling house in Boston”: ibid., p. 8.
“each Member”: www.bostonfirehistory.org (accessed June 26, 2012).
“Brave men”: Benjamin L. Carp, “Fire of Liberty,” The William and Mary Quarterly 58 (2001): 785; available at http://www.jstor.org (accessed June 26, 2012).
“It is of some Importance”: ibid., p. 786.
“While we were here the town”: http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=86 (accessed June 26, 2012).
“a perfect torrent of flame”: Peter Charles Hoffer, Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America (New York: Public Affairs, 2006), p. 39.
“In the midst of our Distress”: Donald J. Cannon, ed., Heritage of Flames: The Illustrated History of Early American Firefighting (New York: Doubleday, 1977), p. 129.
“Sermon Occasioned by the Great Fire”: http://www.wallbuilders.com (accessed June 28, 2012).
“most humbly”: Cannon, Heritage of Flames, p. 130.
2. A Terrible Torrent of Fire: New York, 1835
“How shall I record”: Dennis Smith, History of Firefighting in America: 300 Years of Courage (New York: Dial Press, 1976), p. 41.
“The night was bitterly cold”: William Callender, Our Firemen, the History of the NY Fire Department, http://www.newyorkroots.org/bookarchive/historyofnyfiredepartments/11-20/ch19pt6.html (accessed June 28, 2012).
“We managed to force open the door”: Paul C. Ditzel, Fire Engines, Firefighters: The Men, Equipment, and Machines, from Colonial Days to the Present (New York: Crown, 1976), p. 83.
“with glowing redness”: ibid., p. 85.
“I stood at the corner”: Callender, Our Firemen.
“Street after street”: A. E. Costello, Our Firemen: The History of the New York Fire Department from 1609 to 1887 (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2002), p. 254.
“The water looked”: ibid., p. 288.
“The heart of the city”: ibid., p. 289.
The one-billion-dollar estimate is from Measuringworth.com (accessed June 5, 2013).
3. America’s Most Famous Fire: Chicago, 1871
“the Gem of the Prairie”: Jim Murphy, The Great Fire (New York: Scholastic, 1995), p. 46.
“The wind had increased to a tempest”: ibid., p. 43.
“CHICAGO IS IN FLAMES”: ibid., p. 46.
“Suddenly there came a crash”: greatchicagofire.org (accessed June 26, 2012).
“The scene was now”: ibid.
“a torrent of humanity”: Murphy, The Great Fire, p. 62.
“was utterly choked”: greatchicagofire.org.
“In some instances”: ibid.
“Heaps of ruins”: Murphy, The Great Fire, p. 89.
The $4 billion estimate is from Measuringworth.com (accessed June 5, 2013).
4. New Century, Old Problem: Baltimore, 1904
“nurseries where the youth”: Dennis Smith, History of Firefighting in America: 300 Years of Courage (New York: Dial Press, 1976), p. 59.
“We’re in God’s Hands”: Peter Charles Hoffer, Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America (New York: Public Affairs, 2006), p. 171.
“Throughout the terrible contest”: “Flames Raged for Nearly 40 Hours,” New York Times, February 9, 1904.
“sent their fierce tongues”: “$400,000 Loss in Baltimore; Business Section of the City Swept Away by Flames Which Raged All of Sunday,” New York Times, February 8, 1904.
“Great multitudes of people”: ibid.
“we knew then”: Marion Elizabeth Rogers, Mencken: The American Iconoclast (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 81.
“the great army of firefighters”: “Baltimore Saved, Loss $150,000,000: Fire Controlled, but City Stunned by Its Greatest Disaster,” New York Times, February 9, 1904.
“During all of these hours”: “Progress of the Flames,” New York Times, February 8, 1904.
“a flock of great white fowl”: “Flames Raged for Nearly 40 Hours.”
“Again and again”: ibid.
“Where at Saturday’s close of business”: “Baltimore Sa
ved.”
“to say that the structure”: Hoffer, Seven Fires, p. 183.
only 18 of the 48 largest U.S. cities: http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire04/PDF/f04095.pdf (accessed June 26, 2012).
5. Fire on the Water: New York, 1904
“There was never a happier party”: Jim Kalafus, “The General Slocum: The Horror of Fire at Sea,” http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/general-slocum.html (accessed June 26, 2012).
“Get the hell out of here”: Newsday, April 10, 2009.
“I saw smoke”: Kalafus, “The General Slocum.”
“there was a roar”: Edward T. O’Donnell, Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), p. 111.
“the flames burst”: Kalafus, “The General Slocum.”
“the fire drove me back”: O’Donnell, Ship Ablaze, p. 107.
“thought that the boat”: Kalafus, “The General Slocum.”
“Sheets of flame”: ibid.
“Thinking the little girl”: ibid.
“Unclasping my knife”: ibid.
“My wife and I stood”: ibid.
“Twenty would jump”: ibid.
“After papa tied”: ibid.
“I went overboard”: ibid.
“I didn’t have no life preserver”: ibid.
“To my dying day”: ibid.
6. America’s Last Great Urban Fire: San Francisco, 1906
Crown Jewel of the Pacific: http://www.sfmuseum.org (accessed June 27, 2012).
“At No. 313 Sixth St.”: “Operations of the San Francisco Fire Department Following 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/06index.html (accessed June 26, 2012).
“swirling up the narrow way”: Carl Nolte, “The Great Quake: 1906–2006/The Great Fire,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2006.
“the lower portion of Market Street”: http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/06index.html (accessed June 26, 2012).
“there being considerable water”: “Experience of Captain Charles J. Cullen Engine No. 6 and His Men,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/e6.html (accessed July 1, 2012).
“We laid a line”: “Experience of Battalion Chief John McClusky,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/batt1.html (accessed July 1, 2012).
“Many of them dropped”: “The Dire Calamity and the Greater San Francisco,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/dire.html (accessed July 1, 2012).
“When opportunity afforded”: “George F. Brown Captain, San Francisco Fire Department Engine Company 2,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/e2.html (accessed June 26, 2012).
“thousands of families”: “Account of Louise Herrick Wall,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/ew24.html (accessed July 1, 2012).
“It was an earth-racked”: Nolte, “The Great Quake.”
“The great stand”: “Jack London and the Great Earthquake and Fire,” http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/jlondon.html (accessed June 28, 2012).
“Not in history”: ibid.
7. Deadly Workplace Fire: New York, 1911
“Fire. There is a fire, Mr. Bernstein”: David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (New York: Grove Press, 2003), p. 228.
“Get out of here as fast as you can”: ibid., p. 238.
“I ran to the Washington Place door”: “Girls Fought Vainly at Triangle Doors,” New York Times, December 12, 1911.
“all I could see”: Von Drehle, Triangle, p. 289.
“I reached out”: “Stories of Survivors and Witnesses and Rescuers Outside Tell What They Saw,” New York Times, March 26, 1911.
“Horrified and helpless”: Louis Waldman, Labor Lawyer (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1944), p. 32.
8. Nightclub Tragedy: Boston, 1942
“It was so crowded”: Casey C. Grant, “Last Dance at the Cocoanut Grove,” NFPA Journal, November/December 2007, http://www.nfpa.org/publicJournalDetail.asp?categoryID=1517&itemID=36513&cookie_test=1 (accessed July 1, 2012).
“There was a flash”: Boyd Magers, “Cocoanut Grove Controversy,” Western Clippings, #8, November/December 1995.
“The closer I was”: Grant, “Last Dance at the Cocoanut Grove.”
“We had just been served”: David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, The People’s Almanac #2 (New York: Morrow, 1975).
“It was incredible”: Grant, “Last Dance at the Cocoanut Grove.”
“The tables weren’t all burnt”: ibid.
“Of all the vivid impressions”: ibid.
“At the time”: ibid.
9. 9/11: Fire in the Sky: New York, 2001
“large volume of fire”: The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (Washington, D.C.: 2004), p. 291.
“We had a very strong sense”: ibid., p. 290.
“I’m SCARED”: Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers (New York: Times Books, 2004), p. 41.
“Where are you guys going?”: ibid., p. 64.
“dodging bodies”: Richard Picciotto and Daniel Paisner, Last Man Down: A Firefighter’s Story of Survival and Escape from the World Trade Center (New York: Berkley Books, 2002), p. 36.
“All units, tower 1”: Peter Charles Hoffer, Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America (New York: Public Affairs, 2006), p. 337.
“a bone-chilling roar”: Picciotto and Paisner, Last Man Down, p. 65.
“Get out!”: ibid., p. 69.
“And as they moved toward me”: ibid., p. 92.
“earsplitting, bone-chilling”: ibid., p. 101.
“Whatever it was”: ibid., p. 111.
A total of 412 rescue workers died: Dwyer and Flynn, 102 Minutes, p. xxiv.
10. Wildfire: San Diego County, 2007
“was fast, hard, furious”: Scott Gold and Ari B. Bloomekatz, “Tasting Soot and Defeat,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2007.
“The perimeter of the fire is huge”: Garrett Therolf and James Ricci, “This was hardly a fair fight,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2007.
“There isn’t a difference”: from Ari B. Bloomekatz, “Mexican Fire Crew Joins the Fight,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2007.
“Worldwide, we’re all firefighters”: Bloomekatz, “Mexican Fire Crew.”
“We’re not going to stop it”: Tony Perry et al., “Massive Evacuations Ordered as Onslaught of Fires Spreads,” Los Angeles Times, October 23, 2007.
“It seems scarier this time”: ibid.
MASSIVE EVACUATIONS ORDERED: ibid.
One reporter wrote: ibid.
GOD BLESS OUR FIREFIGHTERS!: Janine Zúñiga, “Firefighters See an Outpouring of Gratitude,” San Diego Union-Tribune, October 27, 2007.
“People have been very appreciative”: ibid.
GLOSSARY
conflagration. A large fire.
engine company. A group of firefighters assigned to an apparatus equipped with water pump, fire hose, and other firefighting tools.
firebrands. Airborne embers.
firebreak. An open space cleared as much as possible of flammable material.
fire codes. Regulations that help prevent fires.
fire drill. A practiced method of getting people out of buildings during emergencies in a calm and orderly way.
fire inspector. Someone who issues permits, inspects buildings, and enforces fire codes.
firestorm. Strong currents of air drawn into a blaze, making it more intense.
flashover. When everything flammable in a room or small building catches fire all at once.
Halligan bar. A firefighter’s tool that’s like a combination of an ax and a pick, used for forcing open doors.
overhauling. Looking for coals or embers that could rekindle a fire.
pumper. A fire truck equipped with a pump and a water tank.
rollover. Ignition of ceiling-level fire gases.
turn out. Respond to a fire.
turnout gear. Protective clothing wor
n by firefighters.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Burgess-Wise, David. Fire Engines & Fire-Fighting. London: Octopus Books, 1977.
Burrows, Edwin G., et al. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Callender, William. Our Firemen, the History of the NY Fire Department. See http://www.newyorkroots.org/bookarchive/historyofnyfiredepartments/11-20.
Cannon, Donald J., ed. Heritage of Flames: The Illustrated History of Early American Firefighting. New York: Doubleday, 1977.
Costello, A. E. Birth of the Bravest. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2002. Google eBook.
______. Our Firemen: The History of the New York Fire Department from 1609 to 1887. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2002.
Ditzel, Paul C. Fire Engines, Firefighters: The Men, Equipment, and Machines, from Colonial Days to the Present. New York: Crown, 1976.
Dwyer, Jim, and Kevin Flynn. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers. New York: Times Books, 2005.
Glanz, James, and Eric Lipton. City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center. New York: Times Books, 2003.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America. New York: Public Affairs, 2006.
Hone, Philip. The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1889. Google eBook.
Howard, Brett. Boston: A Social History. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1976.
Keyes, Edward. Cocoanut Grove. New York: Atheneum, 1984.
King, William T. History of the American Steam Fire-Engine. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2001.
Loeper, John L. By Hook & Ladder. New York: Atheneum, 1981.
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
O’Donnell, Edward T. Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
Picciotto, Richard, and Daniel Paisner. Last Man Down: A Firefighter’s Story of Survival and Escape from the World Trade Center. New York: Berkley Books, 2002.
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