Fire Buffs promote the general welfare of the fire and rescue service and protect its heritage and history. Famous Fire Buffs through the years include New York Fire Surgeon Harry Archer, Boston Pops Conductor Arthur Fiedler, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and - legend has it - President George Washington.


Thursday, November 24, 2011

XENIA TORNADO - 1974

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2019







On April 3, 1974, Xenia, Ohio was ground zero for a killer tornado packing winds up to 300 mph - a disaster that took 34 lives and injured more than 1,000 others.

Many of the dead were youngsters.

Hundreds of homes and businesses - even Xenia High School - were destroyed by the twister that crashed into town at 4:40 p.m. - 
one of about 150 spawned during a 24-hour outbreak across the Midwest and South.

The city operated two fire stations, employing 36 paid firefighters.


"The homes of many firemen and policemen were damaged (13 homes were destroyed) and yet all the off-duty men were back to work within half an hour," the magazine Fire Engineering reported.


The tornado damaged the city's No. 2 fire station, depositing debris blocking the apparatus ramp. The engine company's crew, in turn, responded on foot.

In major emergencies, ``the normal procedure for firemen on a recall is to report to Station 1. However, because it was impossible to travel by car as the tornado damage extended from one end of town to the other, most men started working in the areas nearest their homes," Fire Engineering said.

With lines of communications down neighboring fire and police departments ordered their personnel to the scene.


"The devastation has been likened to World War II saturation bombing," the Xenia Gazette reported. "
Xenia was virtually wiped off the map ... At 1 a.m. today there still were distraught parents walking anxiously through the downtown area looking for their children."


The newspaper described some of the ruins:

"All that could be found of what was once the Mr. Donut Shop on N. Allison Avenue were the stools, standing alone like mushrooms, with the building nowhere in sight.

"Across the street, the Kroehler Mfg. Co., exemplified the terrific impact. A tractor-trailer rig was blown approximately 100 yards onto the roof of the Community Lanes Bowling Alley across the street.


"To the east, the wreckage of the Penn-Central freight train gained most attention. It had been lifted from the tracks and thrown into the Kroger Store parking lot and onto a nearby used car lot. Several fatalities are said connected with this. The Kroger store was obliterated."


It continued:


"Undoubtedly the greatest destruction was in the Arrowhead subdivision where block after block of small brick homes were flattened in an area about halfway between Bellbrook Avenue and W. Second Street. In many instances it was almost impossible to determine houses ever existed."

Aggravating matters, gas and water lines snapped citywide.


Firefighter Charles Beason told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper that "I could see a roof go up, start spiraling, then just explode into thousands of pieces" as he peered through binoculars.

Fortunately Greene Memorial Hospital was spared, and WHIO-TV weatherman Gil Whitney was credited with saving lives for alerting viewers to the tornado's deadly path toward Arrowhead.

Ten days later, tragedy struck again when a fire at a store used as a temporary shelter killed two relief workers, members of the Ohio Air National Guard.


In the aftermath, bumper stickers appeared declaring "Xenia Lives!" and within a year, 80 percent of the homes and half the businesses had been rebuilt, according to Ohio History Central.


On  the tenth  anniversary of the disaster, Harold Horton, principal and assistant pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene, recalled: "People were crying, just lying in the streets." Horton spoke in an interview with United Press International.

Disaster visited Xenia a century earlier.

On May 14, 1886, a tornado killed about 30 people, with houses "
picked up as if they were egg shells and carried in this mad rush of water until they were dashed to pieces against bridge abutments and whatever they might come in contact with," the Daily Advocate of Newark, Ohio, reported.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

NEW CARLISLE - 2011

Photo: WHIO-TV

New Carlisle Fire Department's Quint 2 at the scene of a ruptured natural gas line along State Route 235 on Oct. 12, 2011. The line snapped below the shutoff valve, WHIO-TV reported.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

BLACK MONDAY - 1984










They called it Black Monday.

On Aug. 27, 1984, a general alarm fire struck the old Kelsey-Hayes warehouse on West Columbia Street - belching clouds of black smoke and soot across Springfield.

All off-duty firefighters were recalled per general alarm protocol, and Clark County township fire departments sent mutual aid to fill city fire stations.


These photos from the Springfield Daily News are courtesy of retired Lt. Dave Aills of Rescue Company 1.

In the final frame, it appears an ice cream vendor provided refreshments for the spectators.

B&M FIBERGLASS - 1971

Photo: Springfield Fire Division

On Aug. 9, 1971, a fire at the B&M Fiberglass Co. forced Springfield firefighters to "leap for their lives" from the roof. 

"A series of explosions cut them off from their ladders," Captain Calvin Roberds wrote in the 1978 book "From Buckets to Diesels."

The fire at 350 South Fountain Avenue was fueled by resins and solvents and "caused a large number of injuries to firefighters," Roberds wrote.

The blaze also sent a huge plume of smoke over the city.

Firefighters extinguished the flames using master streams and ladder pipes.

Friday, October 28, 2011

WRONG NUMBER

A telephone call for help was wrongly routed to Springfield on March 22, 1952. The caller reported a fire on Massillon Road. That didn't make sense to the dispatcher who politely responded: "This is the Springfield Fire Division." The caller apologized, saying she wanted the Akron Fire Department - 160 miles away. - Associated Press story in St. Petersburg, Florida, Times, March 23, 1952

Thursday, October 20, 2011

CROSS STREETS

An Associated Press story printed in newspapers, including the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia, suggests Springfield Fire Division dispatchers may have been among the first in the nation - if not the first - to routinely ask callers "What is your nearest cross street?" to pinpoint emergencies. The story was published Nov. 22, 1961.

LINK TO ARTICLE

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

RUNS & WORKERS - PART 4


Photo: Allen County Historical Society

- In 1945, fire struck the Milner Hotel in downtown Lima, claiming two lives and causing many injuries. Firefighters were hampered by poor water supply. Catastrophic hotel fires were all-too-common across the U.S. in the 1940s, prompting safety reforms. Maintenance had been neglected during the Great Depression and World Wat Two. Early 20th Century hotel designs also allowed for rapid fire spread with open stairwells.  

-On Jan. 10, 1982, a major fire "burned through the hospital wing" of the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield, according to the Associated Press. Firefighters were hampered by intense flames inside and frozen equipment outside. The fire injured 30 people, including four firefighters. The facility has a long history. The cornerstone of Ohio Masonic Home’s original building was placed in 1892.

On Oct. 13, 1946, a refrigerated railroad freight car smashed into the lobby of the Frances Hotel in downtown Springfield, Ohio. There were no serious injuries. The car was one of three that derailed from a New York Central train, according to an Associated Press report printed in the Telegraph newspaper of Nashua, New Hampshire. The accident caused damage estimated at $100,000 by William Wendl, manager of the hotel, according to an AP dispatch in the Baltimore Sun. A wrecking crane removed the car from the lobby.

- The Victoria Advocate, a newspaper in Texas, printed an Associated Press dispatch on May 7, 1960 from Springfield, Ohio: "
The guest of honor, Raymond Beaty, was left by himself when a fire interrupted his retirement dinner. But Beaty understood. He was a city fireman for 17 years and his farewell dinner was being held in No.6 Engine House when it was interrupted by a general alarm factory fire."

- On the night of Oct. 21-22, 1958, a "fire bug menace" struck the southside of Springfield, according to an Associated Press dispatch published in the Youngstown Vindicator. Fire Chief Willard Compton said fires were set at Springfield South High School, an autobody shop and four garages. "All available policemen and firemen were called," AP said. 

- On June 2, 1873, the shops of the Springfield Agricultural Works went up in flames. The agricultural works - a plant that encompassed 80,000 feet of floor - ``were almost totally destroyed by fire, just when most needed to get out work for the fall trade,'' according to Beer's 1881 history of Clark County. The shops, which manufactured grain drills, cultivators and cider-mills were ``rebuilt at once.' 

- On April 1, 1905, a freight car from the Detroit Southern Railroad jumped the tracks and smashed into the boiler room at the Thomas Stationary Co., causing the Springfield plant's "huge smokestack to tumble to the ground," according to a dispatch printed in The Hudson Independent newspaper of Hudson, Ohio. There were no serious injuries, but some workers "were prevented with difficulty from jumping from the windows," the dispatch said.

- As crews battled a fire at The Peter A. Boggan Co. on Jan. 11, 1932, a floor collapsed ``endangering the lives of the firemen and the chief who were in the basement,'' The Springfield Daily News reported. They escaped without serious injury from the store, which was located at 34 East Main Street, Springfield.

Monday, October 17, 2011

TWIN GENERAL ALARMS - 1925

On May 12, 1925, Springfield was the scene of two general alarm fires - and when the flames were tamed the citizens of Springfield thanked their firefighters with sandwiches and cigars.

 The first blaze occurred at the Springfield Abattoir Co at Mill Run and Buck Creek. (An abattoir is a slaughterhouse.) The fire broke out at 2 p.m. and the flames destroyed the cowshed and barns, according to the Springfield Daily News. The fire also destroyed some livestock.

The second general alarm fire that day broke out at the Brain Lumber Co. at East and Harrison streets. The initial alarm was transmitted at 7:20 p.m. with the general alarm following 10 minutes later, according to the Daily News.

The newspaper reported the fire started when a thick coating of oil on the surface of Mill Run, paralleling the lumber yard, became ignited from an unknown cause.

Flames shot high into the air, and within a few minutes after the first fire company arrived on the scene, the fire had reached one of the buildings of the lumber company and then quickly spread to the others.

From the Mill Run, the flames first spread to a building in which shingles were stored, and numerous other buildings in which finished and rough lumber was stored, were quickly ignited in turn.

The newspaper estimated that the blaze, which was visible from across the city, attracted between 5,000 and 10,000 spectators.

The fire also destroyed three railroad boxcars loaded with lumber.

Firebrands from the lumber company ignited row house roofs along Harrison Street, and firefighters alternately played their hose lines on the lumber yard and the dwellings. Some of the residents turned their garden hoses on the flames.

The citizens of Springfield showed their appreciation to the firemen and ``baskets of sandwiches and kettles of steaming coffee were served to the men as they worked in the cold hours around midnight,'' the Daily News said.

``Boxes of cigars were also passed out to the firemen by the officials of the Brain Co,'' the newspaper said.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

EMERGENCY SQUAD - 1953


In 1953, the Springfield Fire Division replaced its original emergency squad - a 1949 panel truck - with an International Harvester Metro that permitted more headroom as well as space for additional equipment. IH operated an assembly plant in Springfield.

Friday, January 21, 2011

CROWELL-COLLIER - 2009

Photo: Springfield News-Sun

On Nov. 27, 2009, Springfield firefighters responded to the old Crowell-Collier building where a section of bricks crumbled to the street and sidewalk. There were no injuries.