On Feb. 3, 1908, two Xenia firefighters died when a brick wall collapsed at a fire at the H. H. Kavey & Co. wholesale grocery store.
Martin Ulery and Joseph Fletcher were manning a hose line at the rear of the building when the wall gave way, according to Fire Engineering magazine. Another firefighter was thrown to the ground by the force of the collapse and injured.
"The flames made their way upward through the elevator-shaft, and before they burst through the roof had been burning fiercely for some time," the magazine said. "The firemen were hindered in their operations by the intense cold and by help given to the flames by the gas which escaped from the broken and melted lines."
Firefighters directed seven streams at the blaze, all at the constant pressure of 85 pounds, which was considered reliable in the early 1900s.
The likely cause was an overheated pipe or spontaneous combustion in the rear of the building.
Decades later, members of the Ohio National Guard lost their lives at the same site when a killer tornado struck Xenia on April 3, 1974, according to the Xenia Fire Division.
